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Sixty-Six 
Years 
of Service 








OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE 
UNITED CHARITIES OF CHICAGO 

1922-1923 

OFFICERS 

CHARLES W. FOLDS.President 

MRS. JOSEPH T. BOWEN.. .First Vice President 

LIAROLD H. SWIFT.Second Vice President 

CHARLES A. MUNROE.Secretary 

DAVID R. FORGAN.Treasurer 


BOARD OF DIRECTORS 


Miss Jane Addams 
Laurance Armour 
Mrs. Emmons Blaine 
Wm. McCormick Blair 
Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen 
Walter S. Brewster 
Wm. H. Bush 
Rev. Arthur J. Byas 
Mrs. Wm. P. Conger 
Marquis Eaton 
Mrs. John V. Farwell 
Charles W. Folds 
David R. Forgan 
Charles F. Glore 
L. A. Goddard 
Mrs. Louis M. Greeley 
Charles H. Hamill 
Mrs. Francis O. Hester 


Nathan B. Higbie 
Mrs. Jas. L. Houghteling 
Otis McGaw Howard 
Judge Edmund Jarecki 
Mrs. John E. Jenkins 
Miss Julia Lathrop* 
George B. Masslich 
Charles A. Munroe 
Charles Piez 
Julius Rosenwald 
Angus Roy Shannon 
Howard Shaw 
Harold FI. Swift 
Mrs. ; Garland Thomas 
Mrs. H. N. Tolies 
Harold F. White 
Dean John H. Wigmore 

o 


Member Ex-Officio 
The Mayor of Chicago 


EXECUTIVE STAFF 

JOEL D. HUNTER.General Superintendent 

AMELIA SEARS. ...Ass’t General Superintendent 

EDWIN C. JONES.Financial Secretary 

MARGUERITE RAEDER 
.Senior Attorney Legal Aid Bureau 

"Elected to serve during the absence of Miss Jane Addams abroad. 









I 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS 
of SERVICE 




An account of the activities 

of the 

United Charities of Chicago 

Including 

Reports of Social Work Done and 
Financial Statement for the period 
October i, 1919 to October 1, 1922 



United Charities of Chicago 
308 North Michigan Avenue 
Chicago, Illinois 

r 1^Z3- 

<4 


H IAh 

. C 4 - ^ 


“The days of the pioneer are not over. 
There are continents of human wel¬ 
fare OF WHICH WE HAVE PENETRATED 
ONLY THE COASTAL PLAIN.” 

From “American Individualism” by 

Herbert Hoover. 



£ 1823 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


Introduction . Page 5 

Chapter I. 

Sixty-Six Years of Service.Page 7 

Chapter II. 

Family Social Work Department.Page 11 

Chapter III. 

Home Economics Department.Page 39 

♦ 

Chapter IV. 

Legal Aid Bureau.Page 45 

Chapter V. 

Mary Crane Nursery.Page 57 

Chapter VI. 

Summer Outing Department.Page 65 

Chapter VII. 

Miscellaneous Activities.Page 75 

Chapter VIII. 

Financial.Page 77 

Map Showing Distribution of Poverty and 
Philanthropy in Chicago 


Page 89 













Lord send to men who are old and rougher 
The ills that little children suffer; 

And keep safe and undefiled 

The young years of the little child.— Masefield 

























































































































Introduction 

H UMAN beings move either upward or downward in their 
journey through life. There is no such thing as a sta¬ 
tionary level of human progress. People rise or fall, and 
always there is a terrific pull towards the bottom. It is like 
the force of gravity. Those who fail to put forth their best 
efforts for the purpose of bettering their condition in life, are 
inevitably dragged downward. 

The downward drift, however, is not always due to lack of 
inherent worthiness on the part of the individual. It is not 
always due to lack of opportunities. It is often the result of 
misdirected efforts; it is frequently caused by ignorance for 
which the victim is in no sense responsible; and in many cases 
it is because of unavoidable physical disabilities. 

t 

These misdirected efforts, ignorance, and unavoidable phy¬ 
sical disabilities of people, place upon society in general the 
constant responsibility of lending a helping hand, and are an 
ever present challenge to thinking .men and women, urging 
them to organized effort for the betterment of those conditions 
which are responsible for the misfortunes of their fellowmen. 

For sixty-six years the United Charities of Chicago has been 
pioneering in this realm of human welfare in this great and 
growing community. It has constantly striven to serve well 
and to keep pace with the growing demands and ever-increasing 
number of problems that have come with the rapid transforma¬ 
tion of Chicago from a small city to the enviable position it now 
holds as the second city of the land. 




It is still pioneering, but through the years that have passed 
it has been constantly building until today it has builded a con¬ 
structive organization of which Chicago may well he proud. 
It can rightfully he called the central clearing house of 
social work in Chicago, each of its strategically placed dis¬ 
trict offices forming a local nucleus for community human¬ 
itarian work. 

Any organization with such extensive operations as the fol¬ 
lowing pages reveal is certain to make mistakes regardless of 
the constant effort always to keep them down to a minimum. 
Any questions that this report of the United Charities may 
raise, the officers of the United Charities will be glad of an 
opportunity to answer. Constructive criticism and suggestions 
are most welcome. 

There are still an occasional few who labor under a mis¬ 
understanding as regards the service the United Charities per¬ 
forms for the community. They still look upon it as an old 
time relief society, satisfied to patch up poverty by doles of 
money and gifts of kind. This is just what it is not. It believes 
in giving material relief to the poor, but it believes in giving 
much more. That much more includes the ministrations of 
human service, of science and education. 

Chicago can have just as much poverty and social distress 
as it is willing to pay for. It can also have as much freedom 
from these things as it is willing to work for and to pay for. 
The business of the United Charities is to prevent and to 
remove poverty and social distress. The success of its 
work—and in a large measure the freedom of the city from 
these things—rests upon the co-operation of all citizens 
with it. 




Relief and Aid Society—Noiv the United Charities of Chicago—Giving Relief 
to Suffering Families During the Chicago Fire 


CHAPTER I. 

Sixty-Six Years of Service 


T HE constructive solution of the 
problems of unfortunate families 
and individuals, and the better¬ 
ment of those conditions which have 
been the cause of family and individ¬ 
ual problems, have been the mission 
of the United Charities of Chicago 
since its inception, sixty-six years 
ago, when on February 16, 1857 the 
organization (then called the Chicago 
Relief and Aid Society) was granted 
a charter by the Illinois State Legis¬ 
lature, which set forth the objects of 
the incorporators as follows: 

“To provide a permanent, efficient and 
practical mode of administering and dis¬ 
tributing the private charities of the city 
of Chicago; to examine and establish 
the necessary means for obtaining full 
and reliable information of the condi¬ 
tion and the wants of the poor of said 
city, and putting into practical and effi¬ 
cient operation the best system of re¬ 
lieving and preventing want and pauper¬ 
ism therein.” 


The present name was taken April 
16, 1909, when the Chicago Bureau of 
Charities, an organization which was 
doing similar work to that of the Chi¬ 
cago Relief and Aid Society, consol¬ 
idated with the older organization. 

On September 1, 1919 the work of 
the Legal Aid Society of Chicago, 
which had been established in 1886, 
was also taken over by the United 
Charities, and the service heretofore 
rendered by this general legal charity 
was made a component part of the 
United Charities’ work. 

These consolidations have resulted 
in the building up of one large organ¬ 
ization supported by private contribu¬ 
tions, and which in addition to being 
an agency helpful to those in distress, 
regardless of race, color, or creed, is 
engaged in preventive and constructive 
efforts to improve the social conditions 


7 







8 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


which are largely the cause of this 
distress. 

The sick, the needy, the homeless 
are all helped by the United Charities. 
The struggling mother is assisted to 
keep the family together, and the 
children given opportunities and pro¬ 
vided with recreation as well as 
bodily comforts. The legally har- 
rassed, and those without means to 
obtain the justice which is their due 
are advised and assisted. The down¬ 
hearted man is braced up and helped 
to find employment. 

The entire city of Chicago is the 
United Charities’ field of work. A 
general administration office is main¬ 
tained downtown; ten district offices 
are maintained in locations conven¬ 
ient for the poor of the city; and as 
far as possible the districts are so 
arranged so that each contains a well- 
to-do community adjacent to the 
poor one. The purpose of this being 
to interpret the one to the other and 
to furnish an avenue of friendly and 
helpful communication. 

The district offices are the places 
where the poor come for help and 
advice, and the constant use they 
make of them for this purpose alone 
justifies their maintenance. 

Those who have educated friends 
with whom they may discuss their 
life problems, and money to obtain 
legal advice when they need it, have 
little knowledge of the perplexity and 
distress, in families where these things 
are lacking. The lives of the poor are 
full of complex problems of the great¬ 
est variety, and their helplessness 
calls for the deepest sympathy and 
constantly tests the resourcefulness 
of the trained staff workers of the 
United Charities to the last degree. 

Service the Keynote 

The United Charities is a family 
service organization first; a family 
relief organization second. In other 


words, the giving of relief to families 
under its care is incidental to the 
carrying out of a program of assist¬ 
ance, which will eventually restore 
the family in misfortune to a self- 
supporting basis. 

Like the Visiting Nurse Associa¬ 
tion, the United Charities is a service 
organization differing only in the fact 
that its trained workers minister to 
the social ills of the poor, instead of 
their physical ills. Just as the “visit¬ 
ing nurse” gives medical relief in¬ 
cidental to doing and seeing that 
everything is done for the care of 
their patients that will insure their 
ultimate recovery, the United Char¬ 
ities social case worker gives material 
relief incidental to doing, or seeing 
that the socially ill family does those 
things that are essential to their ul¬ 
timate recovery from poverty. 

The United Charities is not an as¬ 
sociation of a number of different 
charitable organizations doing differ¬ 
ent types of work, but is a single or¬ 
ganization, primarily a family service 
and relief organization, in that in nor¬ 
mal times it is concerned only in giving 
aid and service to families in which 
there is no breadwinner or in which 
the breadwinner is so incapacitated 
that he is unable to work. 

. The importance of this service end 
of the work of the United Charities 
is best illustrated by the fact that 
during the fiscal year 1921-22 out of 
a total of 11,589 families who applied 
to the United Charities for help it 
was necessary to give cash or mate¬ 
rial relief to only 3,211 families. The 
problems of the other families were 
solved by the trained staff workers. 
In addition to the principal work of 
the United Charities, which is done 
by the Family Social Work Depart¬ 
ment, the organization also conducts 
several departments which are closely 
related to its main task. 




SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


9 


Special Departments Augment 
Family Service 

The Legal Aid Bureau of the 
United Charities is probably the most 
important of these special service de¬ 
partments. It does the work of the 
former Legal Aid Society, which 
prior to amalgamation with the 
United Charities in September, 1919, 
functioned as a separate organization. 
This Bureau furnishes free legal aid 
and advice to people who are too 
poor to hire the services of a lawyer 
to protect their legal rights or to see 
that they receive justice in our courts. 
Other departments of the United 
Charities are the Summer Outing De¬ 
partment, Inter-city Bureau and 
Homeless Man Department, the 
Household Economic Department, 
and Mary Crane Nursery. 

The Summer Outing Department 
operates from May to October of 
each year. This department arranges 
summer outings for poor women and 
children at country homes and at 
camps. It conducts Camp Algonquin, 
near Algonquin, Illinois, which is 
probably the largest and best 
equipped camp of the kind in the 
Middle West, if not in the whole 
country. 

The Inter-city Bureau and Home¬ 
less Man Department handles in¬ 
vestigations for charitable organiza¬ 
tions in other cities, who in turn co¬ 
operate with the United Charities, 
and assists homeless and stranded 
men—men who are physically handi¬ 
capped, insane or otherwise sub¬ 
normal—locating relatives and fi lends 
who can assist them, and providing 
institutional care when there are no 
natural resources to be found. 

The Household Economic Depart¬ 
ment, while small, does a very im¬ 
portant work. Families living in in¬ 
sanitary homes are removed to better 
quarters or the bad conditions 1 erne 
died. Special diets are provided for 
children suffering from mal-nutrition, 


and mothers are taught the use of 
proper foods. Under the direction of 
this department, $18,569 was spent 
for milk in the fiscal year 1921-22, in 
order to better the health of the chil¬ 
dren in the families that were being 
cared for by the United Charities. 

Mary Crane Nursery is one of the 
largest and best known nurseries in 
this country and is used as a model 
by organizations in many other cities 
as well as in Chicago. At this nursery 
61 children were cared for every 
week-day last year. This nursery is 
financed almost entirely by a special 
fund provided by the Crane family 
and by others who are interested in 
the special work done by the nursery. 

These various types of work done 
by the United Charities are all closely 
knit together and have an important 
bearing upon its primary work, which 
is the assisting of the family. 

The Organization of the United 
Charities 

There is nothing elaborate whatso¬ 
ever about the organization. At the 
present time (May 1, 1923) there 
is a total number of 128 employees. 
Of this number 86 are divided among 
the ten district offices of the organiza¬ 
tion where the actual social case 
work is done. There are 12 employees 
in the Legal Aid Bureau, 2 in Inter¬ 
city and Homeless Man Department, 
7 in Mary Crane Nursery, 1 care¬ 
taker at Camp Algonquin, and the 
balance of 20 employees compose the 
General Office staff. 

These 128 employees are all sal¬ 
aried, but they are by no means over¬ 
salaried—the rates of pay being no 
higher than in ordinary commercial 
work, and in many instances very 
much below the rates paid. In addi¬ 
tion to the salaried staff, there are 
many people who volunteer for part 



10 SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 




time service during the year. Last 
year about 250 volunteers gave their 
time. The officers and Board of Di¬ 
rectors of the United Charities also 
serve without any remuneration, and 
give much of their valuable time and 
experience in forwarding the aims of 
the United Charities. 

While the management of the 
United Charities is thoroughly busi¬ 
ness-like, the human element in this 
work is never forgotten. The trained 
workers of the society, whose duty 
it is to visit and come in direct con¬ 
tact with the poor, are chosen not 
alone for their scientific training, but 
because of their Samaritan instincts. 
Personal contact, friendliness, help¬ 
fulness, a disposition to build up, to 
encourage, to be sufficiently practical 
to prevent recurring imposition, but 
never for an instant forgetting that 
the first duty is to feed, clothe, and 
care for the needy, regardless of all 
else, are the fundamental qualities 
looked for in engaging the workers 
of the organization. 

The affairs of the United Charities 
are governed by a Board of Directors 
consisting of twenty-four directors 
selected from the community at large, 
and a director representing each dis¬ 
trict division of which there are ten 
at present. The directors hold office 
for three years, and are elected in three 
classes—that is, the terms of one-third 
expire each year. New members of tl}e 
Board are chosen at the Annual Meet¬ 
ing of the organization which con¬ 


venes on the second Monday of 
November of each year. 

The officers of the organization are 
elected annually by the Board of Di¬ 
rectors. 

The biggest men and women of 
Chicago of various religious faith 
recognize in the United Charities the 
most potent and efficient single force 
in organized charity for the city as a I 
whole. The United Charities has the 
counsel of Chicago’s best citizens, in¬ 
cluding ministers, doctors, lawyers, 
merchants, bankers, accountants, and 
professional men generally. Such co¬ 
operation is not only endorsement, 
but is also positive proof of highest 
efficiency. 

No body of men and women of* 
Chicago surpasses the directorate of 
the United Charities in devotion to 
the cause. These men and women are 
giving liberally, money, time and the 
best efforts of heart, hand and brain 
in behalf of the city’s unfortunates. 

The personnel of the staff workers, 
and the vital inter-relations which 
they have with representative social 
organizations, churches and civic 
bodies, explains why the searchlight 
of publicity, when turned on this 
work from any ang'le, reveals only 
high standards of business methods 
and civic patriotism. 

The United Charities of Chicago 
has accomplished more than mere 
system and organization in charity 
work — it represents an organized 
public conscience, courageous and 
humane. 







CHAPTER II. 


Family Social Work 
Department 


F AMILY Social Work deals with 
the social needs of individuals, as 
parts of family groups and the 
adjustment of their relations to those 
groups and to society. It concerns 
itself not only with the economic 
needs of the family, but with all the 
complexities of its social life, good 
health, educational development, 
character development, with solving 
difficulties and misunderstandings be¬ 
tween husband and wife, between par¬ 
ents and children with correction of 
temperamental handicaps; with voca¬ 
tional guidance and industrial compe¬ 
tency; and with the leisure hour 
activities of all the members of a 
family group. 

Its aim is for a larger, better 
rounded life for each individual, for 
producing most for the well being 
for each individual out of each life, 
while at the same time it holds 


staunchly to the belief that the larger, 
rounded life can come only through 
self expression tempered by mutual 
responsibilities of family life itself. 

Family social work emphasizes the 
fact that each individual is essentially 
different from every other: that there¬ 
fore it must endeavor to obtain a 
thorough knowledge of each client 
and must co-operate with the client 
in the carrying out of plans which will 
solve his difficulties. It has no set 
solution. Each family plan is differ¬ 
ent from the next. It is an art as 
complex as life itself. It is the pur¬ 
pose of family social work not only 
to strengthen the weak factors of the 
family itself, but to encourage and 
develop, either directly or through 
other agencies, these other preventive 
measures which a study of conditions 
in many families has shown to be nec¬ 
essary.* 


f F Zt Calfwork" M American“A^socEfuon 

5 tentative as the Committee is still considering the entire report. 

11 























12 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


This chapter reports the services 
rendered to 12,076 families during the 
Fiscal Year, October 1, 1921, to Sep¬ 
tember 30, 1922. 

A staff of sixty social case workers 
(ten district superintendents and fifty 
social case workers) served this group 
in a professional capacity. 

An office in the loop and ten district 
offices were maintained for the con¬ 
venience of the individuals seeking aid 
and to expedite the work. These dis¬ 
trict offices served also as centers for 
the representatives of those city-wide 
agencies, which have no district of¬ 
fices, and in several instances were 
used as joint offices of the United 
Charities, Visiting Nurse Association, 
Infant Welfare Society and the Mu¬ 
nicipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. The 
out-patient department of the State 
Hospital for the Insane holds clinics 
regularly in certain offices. 

The expenditures for the Family 
Social Work Department were $344,- 
755. This included the maintenance 
of district offices, relief expenditures, 
salaries of social case workers, 
stenographers, clerks, interpreters 
and visiting housekeepers, and a por¬ 
tion of the services of executives of 
the organization and of the finance 
and accounting departments.* 

Types of Services 

The calls upon this department fall 
into two groups, based upon the needs 
of those appealing for aid and the 
available co-operation with other 
agencies. 

These classifications are recorded 
as major and minor servicesf : 

Classification 

Types of Service Family Division 

Major Services 5,416 

Minor Services 6,660 

12,076 


Relationship of Minor and Major 
Services 

The distribution of the clients be¬ 
tween these two classifications is de¬ 
termined by the needs of each client. 

This in comparison with the pre¬ 
vious fiscal year has seen an increase 
in the proportion of families receiving 
minor services. This fact is some-, 
what attributable to the increasingly 



The Interview 


effective social organization of the 
city both through private initiative 
and through the creation of public de¬ 
partments administering progressive 
social legislation. It is to a greater 
extent a fluctuation due to the dimuni¬ 
tion of acute unemployment during 
the last eight months of the fiscal 
year—(see charts B and C). 

The United Charities is peculiarly 
equipped to meet the more involved 
situations because it is unspecialized 
and may handle the family situation 
as a whole supplementing the services 
of other agencies. Long time co¬ 
operation with a family involving 
complex relationship is designated as 
Major Service. Instances in which 
relief is expended are included also in 
Major Services. 


•Analysis of the total expenditure appears on pages 84 and 85. 

Q/^’oi^w Se v C l aS m£ Cat *° ns . ar 1 ®f co . r d decisions of special committee American Associatk 

Social Work. T hey are technically known as under care cases (major services) and not und 
(minor services). Definition recorded in 1916 Charity Organization Bulletin. 


of Family 
care cases 














FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


13 


Services are often rendered which 
though of great importance to the 
recipient absorb relatively little time 
of the staff. This group is one largely 
of reference and of information given 
confidentially to authorized agencies. 
These services are classed as Minor 
Services and analyzed and discussed 
later. 

Families Receiving Major Services 

In the interest of these 5,416 fami¬ 
lies receiving major services the com¬ 
munity’s resources (other social agen¬ 
cies, public departments, churches and 
schools) were utilized 11,352 times 
and $169,766 in relief was expended 
in bringing the family income up to 
the required budget.* The following 
paragraphs illustrate to a limited ex¬ 
tent the demands on the society by 
this group and how they were met. 

The services of the social case 
worker in rallying to families support, 
different resources is illustrated in 
this case: 

The K. family was referred to the 
United Charities December, 1921, by 
the Social Hygiene League. Mr. K. 
was distraught with anxiety. He was 
losing his eyesight—only power to dis¬ 
tinguish large objects remained. His 
earning capacity was gone. The 
ownership of the house he was buying 
was jeopardized and the future of his 
wife and four small children was 
threatened. 

Mrs. K. was eligible for a mother’s 
pension and had been for six months, 
but it remained for the social case 
worker to persuade her to apply. 
Curiously she could not believe such 
help was available for her. 

Mr. K. was eligible for a pension 
for the blind—he knew nothing of the 
pension nor how to secure it. He also 
was entitled to instruction from the 
State Vocational Education Bureau, 
but knew nothing of that resource. 
The Bureau at the request of the 
social case worker furnished a broom 
making machine, instructed him in its 
use, and he now earns a minimum of 
$7 a week. 

During the twelve month period of 
adjustment the United Charities sup¬ 


plemented the family’s financial re¬ 
sources to the extent of $341.03. In 
December, 1922, the Mother’s pension 
of $70 a month was granted, which 
with Mr. K’s pension for blind of 
$150 a year and his earnings insure 
the necessary income for the family, 
including payments on his home, in 
which he had less than $1,000 equity 
at the time the pension was granted. 

Mr. K. feels that the best of all the 
services was the opportunity to work. 

Widowhood 

To a great degree the aid to 
Mother’s Law provides for dependent 
women with young children. During 
the last year the United Charities co¬ 
operated with the Mother’s Pension 
Department of Cook County in the 
support of 335 families. Of that num¬ 
ber 132 families received supplemen¬ 
tary aid from the United Charities 
because the appropriation made by 
the county board (although the total 
prescribed by the law) was insuffi¬ 
cient to meet the increased expendi¬ 
tures due to the amendments of 1921. 
A discussion of the relief expendi¬ 
tures of the United Charities for this 
group appears under Mother’s Pen¬ 
sion, page 27. Typical of cases of this 
group is the following: 

In January, 1921, Mrs. E. a widow 
with six children under fourteen years 
of age received the maximum pension 
$65 a month from the Juvenile Court. 
No pension was granted for Vaclav 
who was fourteen that month. He 
was to graduate from eighth grade in 
February. His teacher strongly rec¬ 
ommended that he attend high school. 
His intelligence quotient was 102 as 
reported by the Institute of Juvenile 
Research. His desire to continue in 
school warred in his youthful mind 
with his feeling of responsibility as 
“man of the family.” He listened 
anxiously to the case worker’s dis¬ 
cussions with his mother as to how 
to make ends meet. 

The United Charities supplemented 
the pension until the amendment of 
j r uly, 1921 made it possible in No¬ 
vember, 1921, for the court to increase 
Mrs. E’s pension to $100 a month. 
Vaclav did excellent work in high 


♦The chapter devoted to the Home Economics Department, page 39, describes the budgetary basis of 
relief giving. 





14 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


— 


school. His teacher recommended 
transfer from two years’ course to a 
four years’ course, and he was granted 
a scholarship. The relief expenditures 
by the United Charities supplementing 
the income for the ten months before 
the pension was increased was $531. 

Frequently it is necessary for 
women eligible for a pension to wait 
from two to ten months before re¬ 
ceiving it. Two hundred women so 
waiting were wholly or partially 
supported last year by the United 
Charities. 

Foreign born unnaturalized 
mothers are denied the pension under 
the provisions of the law. The 
Juvenile Court makes every effort to 
aid these women to naturalization and 
grants pensions, pending full citizen¬ 
ship, to those who have declared their 
intention of becoming citizens. An 
occasional woman fails in the exami¬ 
nation and her pension is withdrawn 
pending naturalization. 

An Italian widow, for instance, 
whose pension of $70 a month was 
“stayed” because of her failure to 
learn sufficient English to receive her 
naturalization papers was referred to 
the United Charities. She could not 
learn because of myocarditis which 
prostrated her at times. The twelve 
year old Marie “taught” her mother 
English in the evenings, watched over 
the three younger children and helped 
with the housework between school 
hours. Not only money but much 
service was needed to induce the 
mother to follow the necessary health 
regime—even her teeth needed extract¬ 
ing and treatment—and to encourage 
her in her efforts at learning a foreign 
language. 

When she succeeds in passing the 
examination for citizenship her pension 
will be reinstated; until then, she with 
hundreds of others, in similar situa- 
ations, remain a charge upon the 
United Charities. During six months 
$306.52 has been given in relief—this 
has been supplemented by the county 
agent and special donations secured 
by United Charities case workers to 
bring her income to the family budget 
requirements of $86.10 a month. 

Another provision of the aid to 
Mother’s Law is that only widows, 


whose husbands died within the con¬ 
fines of the State of Illinois shall be 
eligible for pension. 

The following illustrates the type 
of case this provision of the law 
brings to the United Charities: 

A maintenance of way man died dur¬ 
ing the “flu” epidemic in Missouri. His 
widow found her way to Illinois and 
established, residence, using the $1,000 
insurance he left. Seven children under 
fourteen years account for her depend¬ 
ency. Until the older children reach 
working age and qualify under the Child 
Labor Law from an education and 
health standpoint, the home is being 
maintained by the United Charities. 
The $732 given by the United Charities 
was supplemented by contributions 
from other agencies. 

Chronic Physical Disability 

An increase in the number of handi¬ 
capped persons among these families 
marked the year 1922. 

Needs far in excess of the resources 
of the society constantly confront the 
social case workers. Harrassing as 
this is, it also acts as a tonic and stim¬ 
ulates them to continual efforts to 
develop the individual’s powers of 
self-help. Table I reports persons 
who have suffered the loss of a limb, 
blind, deaf and bedridden persons; 
those crippled with rheumatism or 
incapacitated with heart trouble or 
other chronic disease; the mentally 
inefficient, the epileptic and insane. 
Each one of these individuals chal¬ 
lenged the resourcefulness of the case 
workers. To discover the possibili¬ 
ties of self-help in each person, to 
bring these people to the attention of 
medical agencies, and to utilize in 
their interest all existing agencies, 
and to infuse disheartened persons 
with hope and courage, absorbed a 
great portion of the time of the staff. 

The following description of a three 
year effort with a physically handi¬ 
capped Italian laborer illustrates the 
continuity of service demanded if any¬ 
thing is to be accomplished with this 
group. 




FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 15 



m 


HUSBAND SICK- 
SOLE SUPPORT OF 
FAMILY OF SIX 


WIDOWHOOD 


DESERTED 




— IKiH 


r m tsS *, 11 is >% 


'Ml 1 -X l'% ,.48 


11111 I'T. .fi 



H f |§EN> \ §L ; 




Types of Cases that the United Charities Social Case Worker Handles Daily 




























16 SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 




TABLE I. 

Analysis of Physical, Mental and Economic Problems 
and Non-Family Groups Receiving Major 

Fiscal Year 1921-22. 


Illness and Physical Handicaps: 

Accident, General, including Personal Injury 

Accident, Industrial. 

Acute Illness. 

Blindness or Sight Seriously Impaired. 

Chronic Physical Disability. 

Tuberculosis. 

Venereal Disease. 


Among 5416 Family 
Services 

j 

Instances 

J 

. 108 

. 103 

. 1165 

. 66< 

. 567 

. 386 

. 125 


Death of Some Members of the Group 


287 


Mental and Nervous Disease and Feeblemindedness: 

Epilepsy. 

Insanity and Psycho-Neurosis. 

Feeblemindedness and States of Mental Deficiency. 

Intemperance. 

Desertion of Father of the Family. 

Imprisonment of Some Member of the Group. 

Non-Support of Father of the Family. 

Unemployment of Mentally and Physically Fit Father of Family. 

Insufficient Earning of Mentally and Physically Fit Father of Family.. 

Illegitimacy of one or more of the Children. . :. 

Windowhood. 

Maternity. 

Old Age. 

Domestic Infelicity. 


33 

152 

206 

125 

530 

221 

178 

2289 

265 

136 

968 

789 

147 

114 





























FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


In 1919 an Italian laborer arrived 
in the city with his wife and six chil¬ 
dren. In 1921, the dispensary gave a 
statement in which the phrases, "case 
a very difficult one” “prognosis im¬ 
possible to make” “no organic disease” 
“paralysis may ensue” “nothing but 
kind friendly help will ever change 
his mental attitude” appeared. 

The process of restoring him to 
industry was slow. First, he was per¬ 
suaded to watch the other handicapped 
men employed at the workshop of the 
League for the Handicapped—then to 
work an hour a day. His product was 
unmarketable, the money for the family 
was given to the League, and in turn 
paid to him weekly. Finally the 
brushes he made were salable. He 
was earning, and then came the op¬ 
portunity as elevator man. He had 
never run an elevator; he never could; 
he wouldn’t try. The final effort of the 
social worker was to learn to run the 
elevator herself and ride up and down 
with him until he could operate it and 
felt secure in doing so. 

With the father earning, the mother 
maintaining a well organized home, 
Marie, aged sixteen in high school 
and receiving a scholarship, secured 
through the efforts of the case worker, 
because of her high grades, and the five 
younger ones in school, there is an en¬ 
couraging prospect for the future. 
During ten months the United Char¬ 
ities relief expenditures for this family 
totalled $474.37. This amount with part 
time earnings of the mother and Marie, 
and donations of clothing secured by 
the district office* brought the family 
income for the ten months up to the 
budget requirements of $999.50. 

A further illustration is offered in 
he following case: 

A family man incapacitated by the 
amputation of the right leg and a 
gangrenous condition which prevented 
the stump healing, was in a most 
discouraged frame of mind when he 
applied for help. For one year the 
man was receiving medical treatment, 
while the home was maintained by the 
aid of relatives and the United Char¬ 
ities. At the end of that time his gen¬ 
eral condition was improved and 
physicians pronounced him able to do 
“light work.” 

He was an experienced polisher and 
buffer, and a socially minded manufac¬ 
turer was induced to employ him in 
spite of his handicapped condition. He 


17 


is now supporting his family and they 
too have graduated from the group re¬ 
ceiving “charity” to a temporary 
(possibly permanent) economic inde¬ 
pendence. 

Unemployment 

A discussion of the experience of 
the United Charities with unem¬ 
ployed men and women appears 
under Unemployment, page 31. 

The bad physical condition, 
wretched housing, and need of social 
adjustment discovered among mem¬ 
bers of families who have come to 
the United Charities primarily be¬ 
cause of unemployment, is a revela¬ 
tion of the burdens of ill health and 
remediable handicaps endured by the 
unskilled laborer and his family. The 
conditions discovered in these homes 
of wage earners, temporarily depend¬ 
ent because of industrial depression, 
offer arguments for increased wage 
scale for the unskilled. 

In some cases, a handicapped con¬ 
dition, combined with unemployment, 
bring a wage earner to the attention 
of the society. 

Such a case was that of the father 
of a family of seven children. He was 
placed several times during the unem¬ 
ployment of the winter 1921-22. He 
was laid off or gave up his job with 
disconcerting frequency. He lost jobs 
because he could not focus—he gave 
them up because the work was too 
heavy. An oculist examined him and 
glasses relieved the eye trouble; a 
medical examination revealed that an 
old injury incapacitated him for heavy 
work—“light work” was advised. 

The Secretary of the Elevator Oper¬ 
ators’ Union put him to work in re¬ 
sponse to a request from the case 
worker. The wages thus secured in 
skilled employment were $35 a week 
instead of the $18 he formerly received 
as an unskilled workman. With his 
new glasses, work within his physical 
strength, and wages sufficient for 
minimum needs of his family, he con¬ 
tinues self-supporting. This result was 
accomplished with the expenditure of 
$78 in cash relief and persistent and 
resourceful service. 






18 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 



A Typical Residence Section in Which United Charities 
Social Case Workers Find Much to Do 


Desertion 

1 he desertion of wife and children 
by the male breadwinner is a con¬ 
tinuing, and baffling problem. The 
ineffective legislation under which 
desertion is a misdemeanor only, the 
lack of a uniform federal law, the 
difficulty of enforcement of such 
legislation as exists, results in an un¬ 
just burden upon the deserted 
mothers and a shifting of parental 
responsibility upon the public. 

The families of 553 deserters were 
dealt with by the United Charities 
during the year 1921-22. Occasion¬ 
ally the desertion is permanent. The 
economic status of the wife is then 
analogous to that of a widow except 
that she is debarred from the 
Mother’s Pension (unless the deser¬ 
tion has endured more than 7 years 
and the husband declared “legally 
dead”). Fifteen deserted women with 
young children have been receiving 
relief continuously for three years. 

When the deserting father can be 
located it is difficult to secure legal 
action. 


A case in point is that of one 
chronic deserter—entirely indifferent 
to the needs of his pregnant wife and 
four young children. Over and over 
he was located and warrants secured 
which either were not served, or when 
served were ineffective because he was 
released on his own recognizance. On 
the seventh warrant he was brought 
before the Court of Domestic Rela¬ 
tions and sentenced to the Bridewell. 
During his absence from home and in¬ 
carceration, the home was reorgan¬ 
ized, better health and home making 
effected. On his release, he came to 
thank the district staff for the care his 
family had received, secured his old 
job and moved the family into a better 
apsirtment. Here ’ as in many cases 
the desertion was not the only family 
trouble. Maternal neglect, former 
sexual promiscuity of both parents, 
bad home making, lack of parental 
control, resulting in juvenile delin¬ 
quency, augmented the problem and 
were dealt with during his incarcera¬ 
tion and after his release by the social 
case worker. 

Non-Support 

The proportion of families in which 
the father is wilfully negligent or in¬ 
temperate is, among the families 
known to the United Charities no 




















FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


19 


greater than in the rest of the com¬ 
munity. Although numerically few, 
: these families absorb much time of 
the staff. 

For three years Mr. T. boasted “he 
didn’t have to work.” He begged. 
His wife and children begged. They 
were seen daily at back doors or on 
the streets or getting on and off street 
cars with dirty baskets half filled with 
scraps of bread and meat. He frus¬ 
trated the prosecutions in the Munic¬ 
ipal Court and the efforts of the Juve¬ 
nile Court. He claimed illness as one 
defense, but would not submit to 
medical examination; he claimed in¬ 
ability to find work, but would not 
apply when it was found for him. He 
kept his children from school; he en¬ 
tered them alternately in public and 
parochial; he evaded the enrollment 
of one child in any school until she 
was nine; he refused medical care for 
his children and drove social workers, 
truant officers, court .officers from his 
home with indecent language and 
threats of violence. 

The systematic support of the fam¬ 
ily, the united efforts of the court and 
social agencies, culminating in Mr. T.’s 
successful prosecution for violation of 
the school attendance law, for the time 
being has changed his attitude. Not 
only is he working, but all the chil¬ 
dren are in school and have been for 
months. The family is now self-sup¬ 
porting. The children are, however, 
under weight and suffering from tuber¬ 
cular glands, for which the parents 
will not permit treatment. The ac¬ 
complishment of employment for the 
man and school attendance for the 
children may be an earnest of success 
in persuading the parents to accept 
needed medical treatment. 



Mothers of children born out of 
wedlock present very great difficul¬ 
ties. They are of many kinds and the 
need of skilled social diagnosis is 
peculiarly great. Because of the diffi¬ 
culty in dealing with them, they are 
not included in the group of mothers 
under the Aid to Mothers Law, and 
are therefore often referred by the 
Juvenile Court to the United Chari¬ 
ties. The situation is rendered more 
difficult by the almost complete lack 


of resources for giving them social 
treatment. It is usually possible to 
secure good medical care at time of 
confinement, and this is done. After 
the mother has recovered there are 
few ways in which constructive treat¬ 
ment can be provided. The Bastardy 
Act provides a very archaic and in¬ 
adequate method for dealing with 
the father, but the law is invoked 
when the father can be located, the 
mother consents and such court ac¬ 
tion appears after investigation to be 
desirable. 

Imprisonment 

Both incarceration for misdemean¬ 
ors and felonies are included in this 
classification. Occasionally the im¬ 
prisonment is the result of action by 
the social case worker as instanced 
under desertion. 

The financial burden due to impris¬ 
onment is quite negligible. First, be¬ 
cause the applications from this group 
approximate only 4% of the families 
cared for. The exception exists al¬ 
ways as in the following: 

The father, in 1918, was convicted of 
complicity in a murder. During his 
four years of incarceration his family’s 
main support has been contributed by 
a philanthropic woman through the 
United Charities. The oldest boy has 
become a wage earner and the three 
younger children’s satisfactory school 
records are a promise of future good 
citizenship. His wife has never given 
up hope that his innocence will be 
proven, and makes occasional trips to 
Joliet to appear before the Pardon 
Board. An Italian court interpreter 
has financed these trips. The $541.66 
contributed for this family, together 
with donations and the oldest boy’s 
earnings brought the income up to the 
annual budget of $1,192. 

Insanity 

Patients in the early stages fre¬ 
quently undiagnosed, occasionally 
diagnosed but not committable, pa¬ 
roled and escaped patients, families of 
patients already committed, comprise 
this group. 






20 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


t 


- 


Not infrequently the social case 
worker is the first to suspect the pres¬ 
ence of insanity and takes the initia¬ 
tive in securing medical advice. 

Two middle-aged sisters had been 
repeatedly evicted for non-payment of 
rent, and were found to. be living in 
filth, disorder and indescribable 
squalor. Their resources were suffi¬ 
cient for their needs, but they would 
not draw money from the bank. The 
neighbors thinking their condition 
evidenced destitution notified the 
United Charities. The social case 
worker in turn enlisted the Mental 
Hygiene Society diagnosis and com¬ 
mitment followed. 

Nationality 

The Nationality table below is 
based on the records of the 5416 


designated as the Major Service 
group. (See also Table V on page 
24.) 

The immigrant family often pre¬ 
sents difficulties of social adjustment. 
Table II shows that but 25.9% of the 
families known to the United Chari¬ 
ties were of American birth. 

Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Boher 
mian and other foreign language in¬ 
terpreters, members of the staff of 
the United Charities, achieved under¬ 
standing with these families. The 
foreign language press and foreign 
language societies, church groups and 
priests and pastors were enlisted in 
developing a reciprocal understand¬ 
ing. 


Number and Percent Distribution of Families Receiving Major Services from 
the Specified Charitable Organizations, Chicago, New York and 
Philadelphia by Nationality of Head of Household. 


Families Receiving Major Services October 1921 to 

September 1922 


Nationality 

United Charities 
of Chicago 

Charity Organiza¬ 
tion Society of 
New York 

Philadelphia Soci¬ 
ety for Organizing 
Charity 

Number 

Percent 

Dist. 

Number 

Percent 

Dist. 

Number 

Percent 

Dist. 

Total. 

5416 

100.0 

3468 

100.0 

1948 

100.0 

Native Born. 

1416 

25.9 

1082 

31.2 

910 

46.7 

Native Born, White. 

771 

14.3 

867 

25. 



Native Born, Colored. 

645 

11.6 

215 

6.2 



Foreign Born. 

3842 

71.1 

2386 

68.8 

1038 

53.3 

Czecho-Slovak. 

192 

3.6 

42 

1.2 

8 

.4 

German. 

457 

8.5 

82 

2.4 

42 

2.2 

Irish. 

364 

6.7 

283 

8.2 

92 

4.8 

Italian. 

712 

13.2 

1134 

32.6 

403 

20.7 

Jugo-Slavian. 

60 

1.1 

5 

.1 

1 

.1 

Lithuanian. 

115 

2.1 

10 

.3 

16 

.8 

Polish . . .. 

1258 

23.2 

60 

1.7 

157 

8. 

Others. 

526 

9.7 

770 

22.3 

319 

16.3 

Not Reported Whether For- 







eign or Native Born. . . 

158 

3. 



























































FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


21 


TABLE III 
Social State 

October i, 1921—September 30, 1922 

Families and Non-Family Persons 

Receiving Major Services.5,416 

Married couples with children*.3,385 
Widows with children. 968 


Deserted women with children 553 
Divorced or separated women 

with children. 203 

Unmarried couples with children 24 
Unmarried mothers with chil¬ 
dren* . 39 

Widowers with children. 110 

Single women (resident or 

transient) . 63 

Single men (resident or tran¬ 
sient) . 49 

Children (orphaned or aban¬ 
doned) . 22 


Families Receiving Minor Services 

Minor Services classify as follows: 

Minor Services 

Interviewed and referred to other 

organizations .2,563 

Investigations—city .1,704 

Investigations—state—interstate— 

international . 982 

Reports to agencies and individ¬ 
uals . 819 

Not found—(begging cases)..... 105 
Summer outing (and services in¬ 
cidental thereto) . 487 


6,660 

A large proportion of these minor 
services simply involve interviewing 
the person seeking aid and referring 
him to the proper agency. 

This type of service is frequently 
rendered to former “clients” and to 
their neighbors, as in the following 
case: 

A woman formerly aided, called at 
a United Charities office with her 
brother and his young wife. The 
young couple had arrived from Cleve¬ 
land and irresponsibly proposed to 
live with her. They were familiar 
with farm work and an introduction 
to the Illinois State Employment Bu¬ 
reau by the Social Case Worker 
solved their difficulties. 

Occasionally services which form¬ 
erly would have entailed great effort 
are accomplished expeditiously. This 
is because of the growing social or¬ 


ganization of the city’s resources. Re¬ 
quests coming from socially minded 
individuals best illustrate this: 

An attorney reported as destitute 
his little girl’s former tutor in French. 
The tutor was married, but her hus¬ 
band unemployed. The social case 
worker visited the home. She found 
the husband had secured work. The 
welfare department of the firm agreed 
to advance wages for necessary house¬ 
hold expenses. A report to the attor¬ 
ney discharged the United Charities 
responsibility. 

From the family’s standpoint this 
was no service. From the attorney’s 
standpoint it meant saving of time 
and worry. 


TABLE IV 
Co-operation 

Secured in the interests of 5,416 
family or non-family groups. 

Number of Instances 
Type of Agency of Co-operation 

Medical 

Dispensaries .2,914 

Nursing Agencies . 629 

Physicians .1,090 

Hospitals and Convalescent 

Homes . 307 

- 4,940 

Relief 

Case working Societies (Aid 
to Mothers Dept, included 

Juvenile Court) . 835 

Benevolent Individual . 781 

Cook County Agent. 779 

- 2,395 

Legal 

Adult Courts . 157 

Juvenile Courts . 69 

fLegal Aid Lawyers. 10 

- 236 

Educational and Recreational 

Board of Education (all de¬ 
partments) . 375 

Social Settlements, Public 

Parks, etc.1,032 

- 1,407 

Religious 

Churches and Missions. 551 

Employment 

Illinois State Employment 
Bureau . 410 

Institutional 

Public and Private. 333 

10,272 


*A few old couples without children are included—the number is negligible. 

tThe legal services are provided by the Legal Aid Bureau of the United Charities, a report of that 
lepartment’s work appears on page 45. 















































22 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


n 



The Family Social Case Worker Is Their Friend 


A further incident of this type was 
that of reported illness: 

Late one afternoon a public spirited 
woman in Ravenswood reported to the 
United Charities a destitute family in 
Hegewich, near the Indiana line. The 
mother was ill and had received no 
medical care. The friend was plan¬ 
ning to ask her physician to call. The 
social case worker telephoned the 
Visiting Nurse Association and ascer¬ 
tained that all needed medical treat¬ 
ment had been given the sick woman 
and that no monetary assistance was 
needed. 

The fears of the woman reporting 
were allayed, her private physician 
was saved from a thirty-mile trip and 
the efficient work of the Visiting 
Nurse Association received commen¬ 
dation. 

Here is another case illustrating 
this type of service to the public: ' 

A business man received a pathetic 
letter from a child. The letter de¬ 
scribed dire need. He stood ready to 
help. A visit to the home, however, 
revealed different conditions. The 
child’s father was a cutter for a tailor¬ 
ing house and the oldest brother a 
steamfitter. 


Occasionally reports are received 
of women and children begging at 
the door. One hundred and five such 
cases were received last year, which 
it was impossible to locate. The per¬ 
son begging had evidently given an 
incorrect address. Here is a case in 
point: 

A child appealed for aid to a minis¬ 
ter. The minister telephoned the near¬ 
est United Charities district office and 
was asked to detain the child a few 
minutes. Shortly he was told that 
the residents at the address the little 
boy gave knew no such family, nor 
was the family known in the neigh¬ 
borhood. As a result of the minister’s 
interest the child’s real home was dis¬ 
covered and the little fellow checked 
in his Artful Dodger” enterprises. 

Family Begging Is Unnecessary 

It may be authoritatively stated that 
no family need beg in Chicago because 
°f destitution. The United Charities 
is able to give ample relief in these 
cases.' Behind every instance of child 
)e §§firig are dissolute and depraved 
parents profiting therefrom. 















FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


23 


Anaylsis of Economic Status of Fam¬ 
ily and Non-Family Groups Re¬ 
ceiving Relief 

During the month of October, 1919, 
768 family and non-family groups re¬ 
ceived relief from the United Chari¬ 
ties. The relief history of these 
families was traced for a period of 
three years—Oct. 1, 1919, to Oct. 1, 
1922. 

Fifty-six of these 768 families re¬ 
ceived relief during the entire period 
and relief was continued into Octo¬ 
ber, 1922. In none of these fifty-six 
families was there an able-bodied 
male bread winner. In fifty-four of 
these families the mother was tech¬ 
nically ineligible for aid to mother’s 
pension. In the remaining two fami¬ 
lies the pension was inadequate and 
was supplemented by the United 
Charities. 

Three hundred and forty-one of 
these 768 families became self-sup¬ 
porting during this three year period 
and relief was discontinued some 
time during the period. The predom¬ 
inating causes for economic inde¬ 
pendence were employment secured, 
93 instances; earning capacity in¬ 
creased (return of deserting husband) 
22; imprisonment of father termi¬ 
nated, 8; marriage of the mother, 37; 
or young people of the family reach¬ 
ing working age, 60), 127 instances; 
recovering from illness, 49 instances; 
workingman’s compensation secured, 
6 instances, and 22 reasons too diver¬ 
sified to enumerate; the remaining 44 
instances comprised 15 instances of 
emergency relief only and 29 in¬ 
stances in which there was no reason 
assignable for self support. 

Two hundred and eighty of these 
768 families became independent of 
the United Charities during this three 
year period, but continued relief was 
necessary to insure the family’s main¬ 
tenance. These families were receiv¬ 
ing relief in October, 1922, from other 


sources. The chief source of support 
of this group was the Mother’s Pen¬ 
sion—206 families were pensioned. 
Other agencies of the city had as¬ 
sumed the support of 32 families 
while relatives and others interested 
had assumed the support of 30 other 
families, and in 12 instances the 
members of the family were in insti¬ 
tutions. 

The remaining 91 instances in¬ 
cluded family and non-family groups. 
A variety of cause operated to with¬ 
draw this group from United Chari¬ 
ties’ support; 12 families removed 
from the city and 12 were separated 
by court action; other agencies as¬ 
sumed responsibility for 18 families; 
insurance and property adjustments 
following death of some member in 
16 instances rendered families inde¬ 
pendent and no report was available 
in 33 instances. 

The deduction cannot be made that 
72.9 per cent of the families receiving 
relief from the United Charities be¬ 
came self-supporting or independent 
of the United Charities in three or 
less years. 

Certain of these families had re¬ 
ceived relief prior to Oct. 1, 1919, and 
certain of the 712 families for whom 
relief terminated may become again 
dependent and receive relief subse¬ 
quent to Oct. 1, 1922. 

The only value of this analysis of 
the relief of 768 families over a three 
year period is to reveal the financial 
resources inherent or prospective 
among many of the families, and the 
power of self help which has been 
discovered and utilized for the fam¬ 
ily’s economic independence and the 
resourcefulness evidenced in the fam¬ 
ily’s own plans for its betterment. 

This analysis reveals that while 
dependency upon the United Chari¬ 
ties continues it is the dependency of 
a rapidly shifting group. 



24 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


Services to Chicago Agencies 

Because of the multiplicity of 
agencies in Chicago, knit together by 
the Social Service Exchange, the 
United Charities is increasingly called 
upon to give reports concerning fam¬ 
ilies formerly or at present known, or 
to make investigations, or to help 
other agencies in their plans. This 
is a part of the team work of social 
agencies. It is a result of the rising 
standard of work of agencies register¬ 
ing with the Social Service Ex¬ 
change, and is welcomed by the 
society. 

The Juvenile Court, before grant¬ 
ing a pension, invariably secures such 
information as the United Charities 


may have concerning the prospective 
pensioner; the Home for the Friend¬ 
less in some instances asks an inves¬ 
tigation that the superintendent may 
be sure the admission of the children 
is advisable; the Municipal Judge 
hearing eviction cases asks help that 
his decision may be humane and one 
of the daily papers receiving reports 
of destitution consults the United 
Charities. The Board of Health, po¬ 
lice department and the public de¬ 
partments and private agencies avail 
themselves of this service. The 
United Charities has available for 
instant consultation records of 125,- 
000 families who at some time have 
been known to the organization. This 


TABLE V 

Number and Percent of Distribution of Population in Chicago, New York 

and Philadelphia by Nationality. 


Population as of United States Census 1920 


Nationality 

Chicago 

New York 

Philadelphia 

Number 

Percent 

of 

Dist. 

Number 

Percent 

of 

Dist. 

Number 

Percent 

of 

Dist. 

Total. 

2,701,705 

100.0 

5,620,048 

100.0 

1,823,779 

100.0 

Native Born, White. 

1,783,687 

66. 

3,467,916 

61.7 

1,290,253 

70.7 

Native Born, Negro. 

109,458 

4.1 

152,467 

2.7 

134,229 

7.4 

Indian, Chinese, Japanese 
and All Others. 

3,078 

.1 

8,118 

.2 

1,370 

.1 

Foreign Born, White. 

805,482 

29.8 

1,991,547 

35.4 

397,927 

21.8 

Czecho-Slovak. 

50,392 

1.9 

26,437 

.5 

2,240 

.1 

German. 

112,288 

4.1 

194,154 

3.5 

39,766 

2.2 

Irish. 

56,786 

2.1 

203,450 

3.6 

64,590 

3.6 

Italian. 

59,215 

2.2 

390,832 

6.9 

63,723 

3.5 

Jugo-Slavian. 

9,693 

.3 

5,271 

.1 

1,099 

.1 

Lithuanian. 

18,923 

.7 

7,475 

.1 

4,392 

.2 

Polish. 

137,611 

5.1 

145,679 

2.6 

31,112 

1.7 

All Others. 

360,574 

13.4 

1,018,249 

18.1 

191,005 

10.4 


Data Obtained from the Fourteenth Census of the U. S. Taken in the Year 1920 
Volume 3.—Composition and Characteristics of Population by States and 

Cities of 50,000 or More Inhabitants 

Figures for New York Figures for Philadelphia 
Page 710 Page 896 


Figures for Chicago 
Page 274 












































FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


25 


information is confidential and avail¬ 
able only to properly authorized per¬ 
sons. 

Services to Out-of-Town Agencies 

Through membership in the Ameri¬ 
can Association for Organizing Fam¬ 
ily Social Work a reciprocity exists 
between the Chicago United Chari¬ 
ties and the similar agencies in 330 
cities. At the request of other cities 
by letter or telegram the United 
Charities makes investigations, se¬ 
cures assistance for their clients and 
aids in devising and executing plans 
for their care. 

An average of 82 investigations are 
made monthly for societies and pub¬ 
lic departments in all parts of the 
United States, Canada and foreign 
countries. This reciprocity makes 
possible a national and international 
service. The following incidents il¬ 
lustrate the value of this advice to 
Chicago residents. 

A seventeen year old boy was work¬ 
ing in a West Virginia mining town. 
His mother came to the United Chari¬ 
ties district office. She had heard 
nothing from him for weeks and 
feared he was ill. Her plan was to 
start immediately for West Virginia. 
She was persuaded to delay until the 
United Charities “branch office” could 
ascertain the boy’s whereabouts and 
condition. He proved to be a sick boy 
and destitute. His mother, saved the 
expense of the trip to West Virginia, 
forwarded money for his care and 
later his return home. 

Another illustration: 

A crippled six year old orphan was 
abused and neglected in a Florida 
home. The inquiry originated at the 
request of a friend of the boy’s dead 
mother, who came to the Chicago 
United Charities. It resulted in court 
action and removal of the boy and his 
sister from their foster mother. This 
was recorded as “Minor Service” in 
the United Charities record; it was a 
service which revolutionized the life 
of the boy and his baby sister and 
brought reassurance to the friend in 
Chicago. 


Frequently a foreign worker at¬ 
tached to the district office succeeds 
in persuading clients to accept medi¬ 
cal care long refused. Such a case 
was the following; 

Walter, age ten, bade fair to be a 
cripple for life. His hands had been 
badly burned in an accident. The fin¬ 
gers were contracted and useless. His 
father, a Galician Pole, refused all 
medical treatment. After an hour’s 
talk with the Polish speaking worker 
and a visit to the hospital he agreed 
to surgical treatment. 

Another illustration follows: 

No diagnosis could be made of a 
bedridden Czech laborer without hos¬ 
pitalization. This he steadfastly re¬ 
fused. After three visits of a Bohe¬ 
mian speaking worker during which 
his confidence was secured as well as 
intelligence appealed to, he consented 
to removal to the hospital. 

Not infrequently other agencies 
utilize the United Charities’ foreign 
speaking workers: 

A visiting nurse anxious over a mor¬ 
tally ill woman alone in a rooming 
house enlists the foreign worker. 

An Infant Welfare Nurse disturbed 
at the unwise feeding of an infant, 
enlists the Italian worker to advise 
the parents. 

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES 

The stafif of the Family Social 
Work Department has during the last 
year conducted the following addi¬ 
tional activities: 

Case Committees 

One hundred and twenty-two com¬ 
mittee meetings for the discussion of 
individual cases have been held in 
district offices. The services of the 
members of these committees focus¬ 
ing intensive thought upon the so¬ 
ciety’s problems have been invaluable 
to the staff. These groups serve to 
keep the staff in touch with the best 
thought of the day on social prob¬ 
lems ; they interpret the society to 
the community and secure friendly 
visitors for special families. The 
chairmen of these committees follow: 



26 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 



Stock Yards District Office of the United Chanties—“The House of Social ServiceThis 
Building Which Is Owned by the United Charities also Houses Several Co-operating 
Social Agencies Including a Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium Dispensary 

Committee Chairmen University of Chicago, Graduate 


Calumet — Woodlawn Advisory 
Committee, Mrs. Robert Findley. 
Bryn Mawr Advisory Committee, 
Mrs. Frank D. Rock. 

Englewood—Ridge Advisory Com¬ 
mittee, Mrs. H. N. Tolies. Engle¬ 
wood Advisory Committee, Mrs. 
George Steele. 

Haymarket—Mr. George Masslich. 

Lower North—Mrs. A. L. Drum. 

Northern—Mrs. George Packard. 

Northwest—Mr. George Masslich. 

Southwest—Mr. W. J. Carey. 

Stockyards—Mr. W. M. Hayden 
Jackson. 

Stockyards District Council—Na¬ 
than B. Higbie. 

Students 

The district offices have been used 
as training centers for students. The 
social case workers directed the field 
work of these students. These stu¬ 
dents received theoretic instruction at 
the respective universities. They are 
all preparing for social work and 
their training is a contribution to the 
field of social work. They were as¬ 
signed from the following schools: 


School of Social Service Ad¬ 


ministration . 25 

Loyola University, School of So¬ 
cial Service . 9 

Chicago Training School.• 7 

Special Studies 


Unemployment—At the request of 
the Russell Sage Foundation a study 
was made of the effect of unemploy¬ 
ment upon the United Charities. This 
study is incorporated in a forthcom¬ 
ing publication on unemployment by 
the Russell Sage Foundation. 

Co-operation With Churches—A 

study of co-operation with churches 
was made at the request of the Amer¬ 
ican Association for organizing Fam¬ 
ily Social Work and will be incorpor¬ 
ated in a forthcoming report which 
will contain similar studies from all 
parts of the country. 

Special Relief—The district staff 
secured contributions for specific 
families amounting to $35,921.19. To 
a great extent this money was se¬ 
cured from individuals having some 





























FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


27 


natural connection with the families 
or from individuals who prefer to 
contribute to a definite family. This 
money was deposited with the United 
Charities and used in meeting the 
needs of the families specified. There 
is a scrupulous accounting of this 
fund and if for some reason it is not 
needed for the purpose specified, the 
donor is advised and states his pref¬ 
erence in its future use. 

Relation Between United Charities’ 
Expenditures for Relief and Juve¬ 
nile Court Expenditures for 
Mothers’ Pensions 

Three-Year Period—Oct. 1, 1919, to 
Oct. 1, 1922 

Chart A records the fluctuations in 
expenditures by the United Charities 
for 

a. Families waiting mother’s pen¬ 
sion—line 1. 

b. Families receiving relief supple¬ 
mentary to mother’s pension from 
United Charities.—Line 2. 

It also records the fluctuation of 
expenses for mothers’ pension by 
Juvenile Court under Aid to Mothers 
law for a three-years’ period, line 3. 
It further records total expenditures 
by the United Charities and Juvenile 
Court. See darkened areas 3 and 4. 

There is an almost exact inverse 
proportion revealed between line 1 
and line 4. 

In October, 1919, a sharp rise in 
the amount expended by the court, 
line 4, was paralleled by an equally 
sharp decline in line 1. 

The Juvenile Court expenditures 
by February, 1920, had reached a 
level of $38,000 a month, which level 
was retained until November, 1921, 
when it dropped to $34,000 a month. 

This rise of monthly expenditures 
to a plane of $34,000 to $38,000 a 
month was due to an amendment to 
the law in July, 1919. This amend¬ 
ment authorized an increased appro¬ 
priation by the County Board and ex¬ 


tended the requirements to include 
parents previously ineligible. Though 
the law was passed in July, 1919, the 
money was not available until appro¬ 
priated by the County Commission¬ 
ers—hence no full reaction to the law 
until February, 1920. 

The sharp drop in line 1 indicates 
the rapidity with which families were 
transferred from the United Charities 
to Juvenile Court after October, 1919. 

As the Juvenile Court expenditures 
rose to a higher level the United 
Charities expenditures for this group 
dropped to a lower level where it has 
remained for the three years. 

Second Period—Following Amend¬ 
ments of 1921 

The sharp rise in line 4 from De¬ 
cember, 1921, to March, 1922 (record¬ 
ing increased expenditures from $34,- 
000 a month to $60,000), is due to an 
amendment passed July, 1921. (The 
effect of the amendment does not ap¬ 
pear in the expenditure until the 
appropriation is made by County 
Commissioner, December, 1921.) 

The expenditures of the court have 
again risen to a higher plane and fluc¬ 
tuate between $60,000 and $52,000 
monthly, instead of $38,000 to $34,000 
monthly. 

Line 1 indicating expenditures by 
the United Charities for families 
waiting pensions continues on a lower 
plane with a peak in November, 1921 
(due to exhaustion of appropriation 
for year 1921), and a tendency to rise 
in October, 1922 (due to the same 
cause). 

The amendments of July, 1921, in¬ 
creased the amount of pension au¬ 
thorized from $15 per month for the 
oldest child pensioned in the family 
to $25 per month, and from $10 per 
month for each subsequent child to 
$15 for each child. 

Another amendment permitted 
granting of pensions to parents hav¬ 
ing an equity of $1,000 in homestead. 




28 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


CHART A 























































































































































FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


29 



The United Charities Is Their Main Support While the Mother Azmits Her Pension 


With extending both the pension 
group and the amount of the pension 
the court was confronted with a 
deficit by April, 1922, and began 
retrenching as indicated by the fall 
in line 4. Promptly line 1 (money 
expended for parents waiting pen¬ 
sions by United Charities) began 
rising. 

Supplementary Relief 

Line 2 indicates expenditures for 
families receiving mothers’ pensions 
by United Charities. This expendi¬ 
ture is supplementary to the pension. 
The United Charities never supple¬ 
ments unless the maximum pension 
is already given by the court. 

The high cost of living of 1920 ac¬ 
counts for the rise in the supplement¬ 
ing line. Since the amendments of 


1921 granting an increased amount 
per child the tendency is for this line 
to disappear. 

Effect on United Charities’ Relief 
Expenditures 

During the three-year period, Oc¬ 
tober 1, 1919, to September 30, 1922, 
the Aid to Mother’s Department has 
expended in cash, pensions paid to 
dependent mothers with young chil¬ 
dren, $1,445,961 as follows: First 
year, $344,838; second year, $457,594; 
third year, $802,432. 

In providing support for women 
eligible but waiting pensions and in 
supplementing pensions already re¬ 
ceived the United Charities has ex¬ 
pended: First year, $44,203; second 
year, $32,614; third year, $22,833. 



















30 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


CHART B 



CHART C 



The Above Graphs Show the Fluctuation in United Charities Expenditures on Account of 
Unemployment and the Extent of Unemployment During 1920-1921-1922. 

















































































































































FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


31 


The United Charities’ expenditures 
for the three years equalled, respec¬ 
tively, 12 per cent, 7 per cent and 2 
per cent of the court’s expenditure. 

During the period of experimenta¬ 
tion and adjustment it was fitting 
that the court should have the sup¬ 
port not only moral but financial of 
the United Charities. It is an evi¬ 
dence of the adequacy of both the 
amount of the pension per family and 
of appropriation that the demands 
upon the United Charities have de¬ 
creased in three years from an 
amount equal to 12 per cent to 2 per 
cent of the total given by the court. 

This ratio will probably be reduced 
somewhat further. It will not disap¬ 
pear entirely, there will persist cer¬ 
tain extraordinary family situations 
which technically preclude adequate 
pension, and in which cases the court 
will turn to the United Charities. 
Assuredly it is better public policy 
for the United Charities to assist in 
a limited number of cases than that 
the law should be drawn so loosely 
as to admit all exceptions. 

Through the Aid to Mother’s Pen¬ 
sion thousands of homes have been 
maintained which without it would 
have disintegrated. 

The task was too great for private 
philanthropy; only with public funds 
could the standard of adequacy in 
relief giving be inaugurated and 
maintained. 

The Aid to Mothers Department 
has not reduced demands upon the 
United Charities. Rather it has 
raised the standard of care of families 
in which there is no earning capacity. 

It tends to eliminate hopeless 
grinding poverty among good moth¬ 
ers with young children. 

It has released the United Chari¬ 
ties’ energies and resources to the 
care of that large group of families 


which are not eligible to pensions, 
but whose needs are as great. 

It has made it possible to say that 
in Chicago no mother with young 
children need publicly appeal for 
alms. 

Expenditures by the United Charities 
Because of Unemployment of Male 
Breadwinner—Jan. 1, 1920, to 
Sept. 30, 1922 

The social significance of unem¬ 
ployment is revealed to a limited ex¬ 
tent by chart B. 

Chart B records the amount ex¬ 
pended on relief monthly by the 
United Charities because of unem¬ 
ployment of the wage earner. 

Chart C shows the extent of un¬ 
employment in Chicago as indicated 
by the records of the Illinois Free 
Employment Bureau of the city. 

In January, 1920, a labor shortage 
existed and the charts show that 
relief given by the United Charities 
then to the unemployed was negli¬ 
gible. 

When 1921 opened unemployment 
had come and relief for this cause 
had increased markedly. 

Chart C shows the greatest unem¬ 
ployment in January, 1921. 

Chart B shows that the amount 
expended by the United Charities in 
relief of the unemployed was greater 
in March, 1921. 

The inference is that the resources 
of the working man, his last pay 
drawn, his savings and his borrowing 
power enabled him to carry his fam¬ 
ily for a time unaided. 

The necessity for charitable relief 
came after unemployment had af¬ 
fected the families for a time. 

The drop in relief during the sum¬ 
mer of 1921 is due to reduced living 
expenses during the summer as at no 




32 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 



When Mills and Factories Hum the United Charities Is Called to Help But Few 
Families in Which There Is an Able Bodied Man 


time during that summer did labor 
conditions become normal. (See 
chart C.) 

As indicated by the curve in Chart 
C unemployment after growing less 
in the spring of 1921 was increased 
again in the summer and suffered a 
sharp decrease in the fall of that 
year and grew more acute again with 
the opening of 1922. 

The extent of unemployment in the 
winter of 1921-22, while not as great 
as that in 1920-21, came when for 
more than a year there had been an 
excess of applicants over the number 
of positions open. 

The greater amount expended in 
relief for unemployment by the 
United Charities in the winter and 
spring of 1921-22 reflects not only 
the extent of unemployment at the 
time, but the effect of the prolonged 
period of unemployment. 

It should be stated that though the 
expenditures of the United Charities 
in relief of the unemployed form a 
good proportion of the total expendi¬ 


tures for relief, after all the burden 
to but a negligible extent is borne 
by the laborer and his family. The 
serious loss is the reduction of the 
laborer’s earning power. 

The laborer emerges from the pe¬ 
riod of unemployment with his sav¬ 
ings gone (as accounts in local banks 
testify) with debts to landlord, trades 
people, relatives and friends, with his 
family’s health jeopardized and chil¬ 
dren undernourished, with household 
equipment depleted and clothing 
worn and with children withdrawn 
from school and put to work at the 
earliest possible moment. 

There is no occasion to feel that 
the relief given by the United Chari¬ 
ties has been anything but palliative 
and that only to a small degree. It 
has prevented suffering from cold and 
hunger in, as compared with the 
whole group of unemployed, a neg¬ 
ligible number of instances. Chari¬ 
table relief should never be a substi¬ 
tute for employment. The only relief 
for unemployment is employment. 







































FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


33 


Non-Family Group 

The non-family group comprises 
men and women who at the time of 
applying to the United Charities are 
not units of a Chicago family. The 
United Charities is primarily a Family 
Social Work Society. It, however, be¬ 
comes necessary that the United 
Charities extend its services to this 
non-family group from time to time 
owing to the lack of resources in the 
city for these individuals. Ninety-one 
percent of the persons of this group 
applying, during the last fiscal year, 
were men and boys, and the remainder 
women. 

In periods of unemployment the 
applications from this group mount 
at an alarming rate. As labor condi¬ 
tions improve and work opportunities 
ofifer, applications decrease and when 
a labor shortage exists applications 
from this group practically disappear. 


This fact evidences that these in¬ 
dividuals prefer to work rather than 
to be dependent upon public support. 

The last fiscal year saw a period of 
unemployment from October, 1921 
to March, 1922. This period of un¬ 
employment was not as acute as dur¬ 
ing the previous fiscal year, as will 
be observed by reference to chart C. 

The greatest proportion of applica¬ 
tions from this group were made dur¬ 
ing the first six months of the fiscal 
year. The following statement in¬ 
dicates the number of applications 
and the various services rendered. 

Number of Individuals in Non-Family 
Group Aided and Type of Aid 

Medical and Surgical Care Secured.... 155 
Includes glasses, surgical appliances, 
dental, hospital and institutional 
care. 

Board and Lodging Provided (number 

of individuals) . 454 

Includes men for whom board and 
lodging was paid by the United 



The Only Relief for Unemployment Is Employment 











34 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 



Types of Non-Family Group—Homeless Men 


Charities for periods varying from 
one night to one month. 

Transportation Secured 

Men sent to relatives and places of 


employment . 54 

Employment offered and accepted. 105 

Employment offered and refused. 114 


Individuals referred to other agencies.. 144 

1,026 

Arrangements were made with the 
Christian Industrial League with 
which the United Charities had a 
standing account and men claiming 
absolute destitution were referred to 
the League with the understanding* 
that the United Charities would pay 
for their care. This arrangement was 
necessary because there existed no 
municipal lodging house in the city. 

Books of coupons were printed, 
authorizing the Christian Industrial 
League to give lodging and one meal 
to the bearer of the ticket and collect 
from the United Charities. Hundreds 
of these coupons were distributed 
throughout the city, through social 
settlements, churches and private in¬ 
dividuals. Less than one-tenth of the 
coupons so distributed were ever pre¬ 
sented to the Christian Industrial 
League. 

A committee on homeless men was 


organized, conferences were held with 
the chief of police, the commissioner 
of public welfare, commissioner of 
health, in an effort to effect the open¬ 
ing of the municipal lodging* house. 
The city council passed an ordinance 
in June, 1922, authorizing the Depart¬ 
ment of Public Welfare to establish 
a Boys’ Hotel in the building formerly 
occupied by the Municipal Lodging 
House. This hotel was never estab¬ 
lished. The policy of the city adminis¬ 
tration was opposed to maintaining a 
lodging house. The result was to 
place the burden of the support of 
these homeless men upon private 
agencies. 

Various churches opened lodging 
houses and established bread lines. 
The existing lodging houses were 
taxed to capacity, including the Salva¬ 
tion Army, Christian Industrial 
League and the Cathedral Shelter. 

With the improvement in labor 
conditions and the opening of spring 
this horde of homeless men found em¬ 
ployment and application ceased. 
During the winter there had been 
great and unnecessary suffering, an 
unprecedented amount of begging and 
the demoralization incident to social 
neglect. 














FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


35 


Problems Presented by Family and 

Non-Family Groups Receiving 
Major Services 

October i, 1916 to October 1, 1922 

Table VI reflects to a limited extent 
the health and economic conditions 
of the community. The epidemic of 
the late fall of 1918 and early winter 
of 1919 is recorded in the large num¬ 
ber of instances of acute illness, 
death, tuberculosis and widowhood. 

The passage of the Volstead Act 
and its vigorous enforcement during 
1919-20 accounts for the phenomenal 
drop in intemperance in 1919-20. At 
that time intemperance as a difficulty 
among our clients was approaching 


the vanishing point, being but 5.28 
per cent of that recorded in 1916-17. 
The increase at the rate of nearly 100 
per cent a year since 1920 proclaims 
the need of better enforcement, and 
possibly that it took approximately 
one year for the illicit liquor trade to 
become organized. 

This decrease in intemperance was 
accompanied by the lowest count of 
general and industrial accident, epi¬ 
lepsy, insanity, feeblemindedness, 
illegitimacy, imprisonment, non-sup¬ 
port, immorality, desertion and un¬ 
employment recorded in this six-year 
period. Further, no year since 1910 
has seen such a diminishing of these 
problems. 


TABLE VI 


Analysis of Physical, Mental and Economic Problems Among Families 
During a Six-Year Period, Oct. 1, 1916 to Oct. 1, 1922 



1916-17 

1917-18 

1918-19 

1919-20 

1920-21 

1921-22 

Families Receiving Major Services 

7507 

7149 

6842 

5336 

5547 

5416 

Illness and Physical Handicaps: 







Accident, General. 

225 

260 

244 

96 

113 

108 

Accident, Industrial. 

202 

175 

129 

90 

68 

103 

Acute Illness. 

3359 

2427 

3259 

1368 

930 

1165 

Blindness. 

63 

69 

78 

63 

68 

66 

Chronic Physical Disability. 

935 

852 

709 

444 

440 

567 

Tuberculosis. 

1474 

1431 

1821 

1397 

503 

386 

Venereal Disease. 

176 

152 

134 

135 

143 

125 

Death of Some Member of Family. . 

597 

726 

1140 

407 

226 

287 

Mental, Nervous Diseases and 







Feeblemindedness: 







Epilepsy. 

72 

74 

60 

44 

35 

33 

Insanity or Psycho Neurosis. 

199 

205 

184 

150 

152 

152 

Feeblemindedness and States of Men- 







tal Deficiency. 

189 

245 

238 

195 

148 

206 

Intemperance. 

625 

499 

429 

33 

61 

125 

Desertion by Father of Family. 

987 

850 

736 

641 

571 

530 

Imprisonment.. 

390 

390 

253 

140 

194 

221 

Non-Support by Father of Family. . 

231 

287 

213 

103 

177 

178 

Unemployment of Able-bodied 







Father of Family. 

1097 

753 

904 

145 

2090 

2289 

Insufficient Earning of Father. 

633 

826 

502 

300 

134 

265 

Illegitimacy. 

234 

196 

178 

148 

183 

136 

Widowhood. 

1459 

1548 

1726 

1437 

1066 

968 

Immigration within 3 Years. 

27 

2 

1 

16 

43 

16 















































36 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 




Indubitably the labor shortage of 
that year (1919-20) resulting in the 
employment of many mental defect¬ 
ives and physically handicapped per¬ 
sons was contributory to the reduc¬ 
tion in applications from mentally 
and physically handicapped persons 
almost eliminating unemployment. 

The reduction in the number of 
victims of industrial accidents apply¬ 
ing, while in part attributable to re¬ 
duction in intemperance is also due 
to the increasing efficiency of the in¬ 
dustrial board in its enforcement of 
the Workingman’s Compensation 
Law. Provision is automatic/ally 
made for injured workmen and the 
appeal to the United' Charities no 
longer is necessary to the same ex¬ 
tent as in former years. 

Feeble-Minded Lack State Care 

It will be noted that the only per¬ 
sonal disability which increased in 
prevalence during these six years is 
feeblemindedness. In the six years 
an actual increase of seventeen in¬ 
stances and a relative increase of 8.25 
per cent reflects accurately the fail¬ 
ure of the state to provide care for 
these most dependent of its wards. 
The legislation exists, the institutions 
for the care of the mentally defective 
are lacking. It is to be hoped that 
the state legislature will make appro¬ 
priation at the earliest moment pos¬ 
sible for necessary institutions that 
the hundreds of feebleminded wait¬ 
ing commitment may be cared for. 

The United Charities does not at¬ 
tempt the segregation of the feeble¬ 
minded in colonies merely on the 
psychological findings. It is only 
when these persons present peculiari¬ 
ties of behavior and maladjustment 
to an extent described in the law for 
the commitment of the feebleminded, 
“a menace to himself or others,” that 
the effort is made to effect their 
commitment. 


The decrease in the number of in¬ 
sane patients dealt with is due pri¬ 
marily to the inauguration of social 
service departments in the State Hos¬ 
pital for the Insane and the establish¬ 
ment of the Institute of Juvenile 
Research, and the establishment of 
clinics throughout the city for the 
precommitment cases as well as for 
the paroled cases. 

The astounding reduction in num¬ 
ber of tubercular patients, applying, 
is not indicative of a reduction of 
tuberculosis, but rather evidences the 
increased efficiency of the dispensa¬ 
ries of the Municipal Tuberculosis 
Sanitarium. The knowledge of this 
service is widely disseminated and 
patients find their way directly to the 
clinics. The reduction of 33.65 per 
cent in the number of widows among 
the United Charities clients indicates 
the growing* adequacy of the “Moth¬ 
er’s Pension” discussed under Moth¬ 
er’s Pensions. 

The last six years reveals a dimin¬ 
ishing number of references between 
certain medical agencies and the 
United Charities. In 1921-22 the ref¬ 
erence of patients reciprocally be¬ 
tween the United Charities and such 
large specialized medical agencies as 
the Lying-In Dispensary, Social 
Service Department of State Hospi¬ 
tals, Infant Welfare Society and the 
Visiting Nurse Association was 59 
per cent less than in 1916-17. 

1 his does not indicate a decrease 
in co-operation, rather it records an 
increase in efficiency of all the agen¬ 
cies concerned. Each one is better 
equipped both in personnel and ma¬ 
terial resources to care for the pa¬ 
tient’s needs. 

In 1917 the Infant Welfare Society 
ar.d the Visiting Nurse Association 
were referring patients in need of 
;nilk, surgical appliances and special 
medicines to the United Charities; 








FAMILY SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT 


37 


in 1922 these and other agencies sup¬ 
plied such needs as were incidental to 
their nursing care. 

In 1916-17 the M. T. S. appealed 
to the United Charities for beds, bed¬ 
ding, outdoor sleeping provision, 
heavy clothing for patients admitted 
to the Municipal Tuberculosis Sani¬ 
tarium, and for diets of patients in 
their own homes. In 1921-22 the 
M. T. S. was equipped to a greater 
extent to meet these needs. 

United Charities Work No Lighter 

These statements about legislation 
and co-operating agencies and chang¬ 
ing nature of appeals, would justify 
the inference that the responsibilities 
of the United Charities are lighten¬ 
ing. The inference is erroneous as 
it is based on half truths. 

The more intensive work of the 
medical agencies reacts upon the 
United Charities by revealing the 
needs of physical care. Services not 
considered in 1917 such as expensive 
care of the teeth, special diets, finan¬ 
cial support for cardiac cases and 
psycho-neuroses, are now accepted 
responsibilities, at the request of 
medical agencies. The reorganiza¬ 
tion of the home as a health measure, 
long periods of convalescent care and 
supplementing earnings of partially 
incapacitated persons for indefinite 
periods are some of the more recent 
expenses incurred. 

The changed policy of the United 
Charities in accord with recognized 
standards of family care in regard to 
the use of institutions is evidenced by 
the decrease in the number of indi¬ 
viduals referred to institutions for 
care. This more liberal policy in¬ 
creased the expense for service and 
relief. 

The operation of the 1919 Child La¬ 
bor Law has necessitated larger ex¬ 


penditures for the support of families. 
Through the law the burden of sup¬ 
port of certain families has been 
shifted from the shoulders of under¬ 
sized anaemic half-educated fourteen- 
year-old boys and girls to the United 
Charities. This is as it should be. 

The community is better able to 
bear the burden than the children. It 
is with the greatest satisfaction tha. 
the social case workers observe in 
the families the benefits of this law. 
The provision that the child shall 
have finished sixth grade encourages 
the parents to insist on regular school 
attendance. The health provision in¬ 
fluences the parents in accepting 
medical and surgical treatment or 
proper direction of the fool habits 
of the children. 

The increase in expenditure over 
previous years in individual family 
support is amply recompensed in the 
independence of the family when the 
child properly equipped for industry 
is finally employed or when the wage 
earner is returned to industry. 

The standard of service is gradu¬ 
ally being drawn to a higher level. 
The expense to the contributor to 
the United Charities continues. They 
are recompensed in human values. 

Reference has been made through¬ 
out the report of this department to 
the knitting together of the social 
agencies of the city, to the co-opera¬ 
tion with public departments and to 
invoking social legislation in the in¬ 
terests of our clients. 

The Chicago Council of Social 
Agencies is a potent factor in rais¬ 
ing the standard of social work 
throughout the city. It interprets the 
social agencies to one another and to 
the public officials and effects a basis 
of understanding. Through its com¬ 
mittees it focuses public attention 



38 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


upon administrative difficulties re¬ 
sulting in co-operation and well con¬ 
sidered adjustments in the field of 
social work. 

The Council of Social Agencies 
composed as it is of the social agen¬ 
cies of the city is an expression of 
the disinterested effort of all to work 


for the common good. 

The United Charities is but one 
cog in the whole social mechanism— 
reciprocally using and being used by 
all social agencies; working with 
them that unnecessary suffering may 
be abated and that increasing num¬ 
bers may come to a fulfillment of life. 










Weighing and Measuring Children of Families Under Care of United 
Charities at Monthly Nutrition Clinic 


CHAPTER III. 

Home Economics 
Department 


L IVING conditions among fami¬ 
lies whom the United Charities 
is organized to serve will sel¬ 
dom measure up to a standard which 
can be considered normal. On every 
hand the case workers are confronted 
with pressing problems of inadequate 
food, bad housing, poor housekeeping 
and inefficient management of income. 
Illness, lowered vitality, under-de¬ 
velopment of children, indebtedness, 
and domestic difficulties are among 
the results. Of the four children in one 
family, one was 28 per cent below the 
average weight of a normal child of 
his age, while the others were 10 
per cent, 14 per cent, and 18 per cent 
below. Among the year’s clients was 
a west side man whose wife was 
totally unequal to to the task of mak¬ 


ing a comfortable home for the family 
of five children with the amount of 
money he could earn. He expressed 
his reaction to the conditions in his 
household by saying that he was 
happy when at work, but would as 
soon go to jail as home. 

If there is money enough to pay 
for mistakes even a poorly trained 
housekeeper may succeed in making 
a comfortable home; but it takes un¬ 
usual wisdom and skill to stretch an 
income which has no margin, until 
it will cover the cost of good shelter, 
wholesome food, adequate clothing 
and other necessary expenses. 

The Home Economics Department 
was organized to help in getting to 
the housekeepers who need it, the in¬ 
formation that will enable them to 


39 



























40 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


spend to the best advantage, choose 
their food wisely, prepare it in a 
wholesome and attractive way, train 
their children in good health habits, 
clothe them adequately, and keep 
their home clean and well ordered. 

The instruction is given both by 
the case workers and by visiting 
housekeepers. . The case workers 
have been given class work covering 
the fundamental principles of nutri¬ 
tion with special adaptation to the 
families with whom they are dealing, 
^nd the computation and use of the 
tamily budget. The supervisor of 
Home Economics also gives a part of 
her time to conferences with them on 
this aspect of their work and to visits 
to families who present difficult prob¬ 
lems of undernourishment or poor 
housekeeping. 

Individual and Group Instruction 

The instruction is given, ordinarily, 
to each mother in her own home by 
the case worker in the course of her 
other efforts to benefit the family, or 
by the visiting housekeeper who goes 
in for this purpose. Some work, 
however, was done with groups dur¬ 
ing the past year. One woman whom 
the Englewood visiting housekeeper 
was teaching to sew, was so delighted 
with the possibilities her instruction 
was opening that she invited five of 
her friends to come to her home and 
share the lessons. When each had 
made several garments they had a 
party at the house of one of the 
friends and exhibited them. 

One of the case workers in the 
Southwestern district was told re¬ 
peatedly by one of the Polish moth¬ 
ers, whose mentality was graded at 
nine years, that her children would 
not eat oatmeal. When the, cereal 
was examined it was found to be of 
the consistency of paste, made by 
boiling the oatmeal, milk, water and 
sugar together. The case worker or¬ 
ganized a class of ten Polish women 


receiving regular relief, who met 
twice a week from March to July at 
the Gadshill Settlement, where, with 
the help of an interpreter, she taught 
them to cook simple, inexpensive 
dishes. 

The children who had refused oat¬ 
meal were at class the day it was 
properly cooked, ate all they were 
given and cried for more. The moth¬ 
ers enjoyed the class but they were 
a little sensitive about being taught 
cooking at their age. The little 
daughter of one of them, coming out 
of the house with a piece of bread 
covered with jam, gave a bite to a 
youngster standing nearby with the 
remark, “Ain’t that good jell? My 
mama learned to make it in English 
class.” 

Visiting Housekeepers 

In two districts a visiting house¬ 
keeper was maintained during the 
past year. In Calumet by the gener¬ 
osity of Mrs. Julius Rosenwald and 
in Englewood through the co-opera¬ 
tion of the different women’s clubs of 
the district, who contributed the sal¬ 
ary of the worker. The visiting 
housekeeper formerly stationed in 
the Calumet district is to be at the 
service of the other districts during 
the coming year. These workers go 
to the families where the mother 
needs and can profit by a definite 
course of instruction in cooking, 
sewing, shopping and housekeeping. 
They give demonstration cooking 
and sewing lessons, distribute recipes, 
and take the housekeepers on shop¬ 
ping excursions. 

The father of the H. family was a 
skilled mechanic who had earned $7 
to $8 a day, but the household had 
not been organized to allow for sav¬ 
ing, nor were any one of the three 
children up to the average weight of 
children of their age. When the father 
became unable to work through ill¬ 
ness, they were given an allowance 
for food calculated in the same way 
as for other families, but they could 








HOME ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT 


41 



Visiting Housekeeper Demonstrating Proper Cooking Methods 


not make it reach. The case worker 
found that they were having two 
meals only each day in order to make 
the money last. A typical supper was 
sliced bananas, with cake from the 
bakery. The visiting housekeeper 
helped them to plan the exact amounts 
of meat, milk, vegetables, cereals and 
other foods needed, to choose the 
kinds that the money would buy, and 
how to prepare the ones that were 
new. The children began to gain and 
the family was enormously interested 
to find that they could be well fed on 
so little money. The father remarked 
after a time that if his wife had known 
as much about the family budget when 
they were first married as she then 
did, they would have had enough 
saved to tide them over all emer¬ 
gencies. 


Weighing and Measuring Tests and 
Nutrition Clinic 

At the beginning of the past year, 
the assistant general superintendent 
planned with the Elizabeth McCor¬ 
mick Fund to hold a monthly Nu¬ 
trition clinic in all of the districts, 
except Central, at which all children 
in the families receiving regular al¬ 
lowances from the United Charities 
and not under the care of the Infant 
Welfare Society* could be weighed 
and measured and their physical de¬ 
velopment kept under observation. 
Each child is given directions about 
his food and personal habits. A phy¬ 
sician who is a specialist in children’s 


‘Children under two years old are under the care of the Infant Welfare Society and the mothers 
receive special instruction. Undernourishd children of pre-school age may also attend their clinics. 























42 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


work examines each child who is not 
developing normally and makes rec¬ 
ommendations for any special treat¬ 
ment indicated by his findings. The 
case worker sees that these are car¬ 
ried out—the carious teeth pulled or 
filled, the infected tonsils removed 
and other conditions remedied until 
the child is free to gain. She works 
with the mother to insure the child 
good regular meals, a suitable place 
to sleep, and to train him in good 
health habits. If cooking lessons are 
needed, arrangements are made for 
the mothers to join a class or the vis¬ 
iting housekeeper gives them. In 
many cases advice and recipes given 
by the case worker are sufficient. 

In Central district the children are 
weighed and measured at the local 
Municipal Tuberculosis dispensary 
where they are also examined by a 
physician and given instruction in 
diet and health habits. 

The following is the report of the 
Elizabeth McCormick Fund on the 
children of regular allowance families 
of the United Charities weighed and 
measured from December 1, 1921, to 
October 1, 1922. 

Total Per. 

Number weighed and measured.943 
Average weight (Average 20% 

over inclusive) .372 39.4% 

Borderline (less than 7% under¬ 
weight) .341 36.1% 

Underweight (7% and more)...230 24.3% 

The same agency weighed and 
measured the children in a number 
of the public schools of Chicago and 
found the percentage of underweight 
running as high as 34. The above 
figures may be taken therefore to in¬ 
dicate that the children in the fam¬ 
ilies supported by the United Char¬ 
ities receive somewhat better than 
average care. 

Estimating the Family Budget 

Giving relief cannot be counted 
upon to benefit those who receive it 
unless it is adapted to their needs. 
Harm instead of good frequently re¬ 


sults. If the amount given is too lit¬ 
tle, two courses are open to the peo¬ 
ple whose needs have been only 
partly met. They may seek addi¬ 
tional help elsewhere and in search¬ 
ing for it become “pauperized” as is 
sometimes said of those whose self- 
respect is lowered and their inde¬ 
pendence of spirit and courage re¬ 
duced until they cannot easily win 
their way back to a normal place in 
society. 

On the other hand, if they con¬ 
tent themselves with the dole and 
make it “do” by the many methods 
familiar to the poor — the diet of 
bread and coffee, living in unheated 
houses, wearing inadequate clothing, 
doing without cleaning materials, 
and household necessities—thev suf- 

|r 

fer the inevitable penalty in lowered 
health and morale. 

To determine the amount of relief 
needed in a family which must re¬ 
main dependent on outside help for 
some time, such as in the case of 
a widow with small children, it is 
necessary to make a careful esti¬ 
mate of the amount it will cost 
them to live on a standard that 
will keep them in health and furnish 
the conditions necessary for the nor¬ 
mal development of each member of 
the family. The difference between 
this estimated budget and the income 
available is the amount of relief nec¬ 
essary. In order to achieve the re¬ 
sults aimed at the family must feel 
that it can depend upon this amount 
in regular periodical installments. 

In giving emergency relief it may 
be necessary to calculate cost of food, 
fuel or clothing only, but knowledge 
of the cost of different items of the 
budget is necessary here, also. 

The schedule by which the house¬ 
hold budgets are estimated is one of 
the responsibilities of the Home Eco¬ 
nomics Department. Lists of the 
amounts of food and number of gar- 





HOME ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT 


43 



Physician Examining Child at Special Nutrition Clinic 


ments required by adults under dif¬ 
ferent conditions and children of dif¬ 
ferent ages have been compiled, and 
the amount of fuel and household 
supplies needed by families in various 
circumstances, computed. These lists 
are based upon the experience of 
many families as well as upon scien¬ 
tific data. The visiting housekeeper 
in Englewood tested the food allow¬ 
ance by a six weeks’ experiment with 
a family consisting of mother, and 
children 2J4, 4 and 6 years of age. 
She helped the mother plan well-bal¬ 
anced meals and went with her to do 
the buying so that accurate record of 
all food used was kept. The children 
made more than normal gains in 
weight during the six weeks, the 
mother gained and the whole family 
appeared to be in better physical con¬ 
dition than before. The expenditures 
for the six weeks ran slightly under 
the estimate. 


The full data collected on budgets 
is published by the Chicago Council 
of Social Agencies* which issues a 
new schedule for making the compu¬ 
tation as often as changes in prices 
makes it necessary. In preparation 
for a new schedule the Home Eco¬ 
nomics Department, in co-operation 
with the Aid to Mothers Department 
of the Juvenile Court and the Jewish 
Bureau of Social Service, and some¬ 
times assisted by students of the So¬ 
ciology department of the University 
of Chicago, secures prices of com¬ 
modities from representative stores 
in all parts of the city where working 
people must buy. On the basis of 
these prices it computes a new sched¬ 
ule which is submitted to the com¬ 
mittee on Relief of the Council of 
Social Agencies. 

The changes in this schedule give 
an index of the comparative expenses 
of families living on a minimum nor- 


*The Chicago Standard Budget for Dependent Families, by Florence Nesbitt, price 25c, Chicago 
Council of Social Agencies, 17 North State Street. 





















44 SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


mal standard at different dates in 
Chicago, in all items of the budget 
except rent. As the agencies giving 
relief adjust the rent to suit each 
individual family, studies of changes 
in cost of housing—which is still on 
the increase—have not been included. 

This information is of interest not 
only to social agencies but also to 
employers who wish to keep them¬ 
selves informed on changes in living 
costs. A discussion of the minimum 
budget for the self-supporting family 
was included in the last edition of 
the pamphlet. The following figures 
show the changes in cost of two 
items of the family budget during 


a period of twenty-one months: 

Cost of Food per Week. 

Sept. Nov. July 
1920 1921 1922 

Man or boy over 14 years 
at ordinary (increase for 
heavy) muscular work..$4.10 $2.80 $2.50 

Woman, or girl over 14.. 3.30 2.25 2.00 

Boy, 12 to 14. 3.35 2.30 2.05 

Girl, 12 to 14. 2.90 2.10 1.90 

Children, 9 to 12. 2.70 1.95 1.80 

Children, 6 to 9. 2.40 1.80 1.65 

Children under 6. 2.00 1.60 1.45 

Cost of Fuel per Month. 

Sept. Nov. July 
1920 1921 1922 

During the winter $15.50 $17.00 $17.00 
months in a house- to to to 
hold using two coal $17.00 $18.50 $18.50 
stoves. 













CHAPTER IV. 

Legal Aid Bureau 

“Within the four walls of the Legal Aid offices, human life is laid bare. More 
tragedies and comedies are enacted than can be seen on any stage. The people 
of the cities march in endless procession through these offices, leaving behind them 
a composite picture of life in our great cities. They are not the "wrecks and fail¬ 
ures of our civilization; they are self-respecting, self-supporting persons. As 
nearly as one group can, they represent the common peopleA—Carnegie Founda¬ 
tion Bulletin on u Justice and the Poor." 


A WISE and sure way to pro¬ 
mote g*ood citizenship is to in¬ 
sure justice to the common 
people. There is always one agitator 
—injustice. Many Chicago people un¬ 
able to pay for legal advice, would 
of necessity suffer grave injustices 
were it not for the free service af¬ 
forded by the Legal Aid Bureau of 
the United Charities. Our system of 
courts and methods of legal pro¬ 
cedure are so intricate and confusing* 
to the average man that he must of 
necessity secure legal advice and 
service if he is to have his day in 
coutt. 

Very few among the poor are for¬ 
tunate enough to number among 
their acquaintances a good lawyer 

45 


from whom they can seek advice or 
counsel. Still fewer have the courage 
to seek such counsel from a lawyer 
with whom they are not acquainted, 
and even those who have the courage 
can seldom get help because they 
have no money to pay for the serv¬ 
ices they require. 

Many unscrupulous persons who 
are well aware of the difficulties the 
poor encounter in securing justice 
take an unfair advantage of their 
predicament and proceed to take 
away from them, even the little that 
they have. 

For this reason, the Legal Aid 
Bureau of the United Charities is 
doing a very important work in pro¬ 
tecting the poor of Chicago from 







































































46 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


would-be oppressors, and in secur¬ 
ing for them the justice to which 
they are rightfully entitled. 

Work Begun in 1886 

This important work, undertaken 
on behalf of the poor of Chicago, 
had its beginning in 1886, when an 
organization was formed, known as 
the Protective Agency for Women 
and Children, and which was in¬ 
corporated in 1887. Another agency, 
the Bureau of Justice, was incorpor¬ 
ated in 1888. These two agencies 
were consolidated in 1905 and re¬ 
named the Legal Aid Society of Chi¬ 
cago. In September, 1919 the Legal 
Aid Society became a separate de¬ 
partment of the United Charities of 
Chicago, and since that date this free 
legal service has been carried on in 
the name of the Legal Aid Bureau 
of the United Charities. 

A little more than three years have 
elapsed since the amalgamation and 
it is now possible to give some com¬ 
parative statistics and to record some 
of the results of the consolidation. 
On the following pages, therefore, 
are recorded the accomplishments of 
the thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth and 
thirty-sixth years of free legal aid 
service in Chicago. 

Comparative Case Count 

The last published report for the 
Legal Aid Society for the year end¬ 
ing December 31, 1918, showed a 
total of 9,361 new applicants and 
1,904 cases carried over from the 
previous year, a total of 11,265 cases. 

The following table gives a com¬ 
parative case count since January 1 
1919: 

New Old Total 

*From Jan. 1, 1919 to Oct. 

1, 1919 . 6,310 1,983 8,293 

From Oct. 1, 1919 to Sept. 

30, 1920 . 6,550 1,882 8,432 

From Oct. 1, 1920 to Sept. 

30, 1921 . 9,035 3,456 12,491 

From Oct. 1,1921 to Sept. 

30, 1922.10,035 4,219 14,254 


Types of Cases Handled 

The types of cases handled during 
the last fiscal year were as follows: 


Wage . 

Wage Assignment . 

Compensation . 

Landlord and Tenant. 

Chattel Mortgage . 

Real Estate . 

Recovery of Personal Property.... 

Damage Personal Property. 

Damage Personal Injury. 

Contract . 

Insurance . 

Money Loaned .:. 

Pawn Shop . 

Bankruptcy . 

Collection . 

Adjustment Claims . 

Employment Agency . 

Domestic . 

Support . 

Alimony . 

Adoption . 

Detention of Child. 

Probate Matter . 

Bastardy . 

Insanity . 

Criminal Defense . 

Disorderly Conduct . 

Slander and Libel. 

Advice as to Legal Rights. 

Attorney and Client. 

Miscellaneous . 


3,088 

95 

572 

503 

38 

316 

616 

92 

381 

624 

297 

14 
7 

34 

1,719 

377 

10 

415 

10 

81 

10 

31 

861 

21 

19 

15 
5 

16 
370 
376 
488 


Jewish and Domestic Cases 

Two policies of the United Chari¬ 
ties which were adopted in adminis¬ 
tering the work of the Legal Aid 
Bureau, because it was thought a 
more effective handling of cases 
would result, have decreased the 
case count in the Legal Aid Bureau. 
The first of these policies relates to 
the handling of Jewish cases. A 
number of years ago the Associated 
Jewish Charities requested the United 
Charities to refer all Jewish families 
to that organization. While the Di¬ 
rectors of the United Charities be¬ 
lieved that it was a better policy to 
conduct family case work on a non¬ 
sectarian and non-racial basis, it 
gladly accepted the policy of the 
Jewish organization, knowing that 
the Jewish poor would be sym¬ 
pathetically and efficiently cared for 


*The last nine months of the Legal Aid Society 






































LEGAL AID BUREAU 


47 


by that organization. When the 
Legal Aid became a part of the 
United Charities, the same policy was 
adopted in legal cases. It is not 
known exactly how many Jewish 
cases were handled by the old Legal 
Aid Society, but probably the 367 put 
down as “Russians” in the 1918 re¬ 
port of that Society were of the 
Jewish race. 

The other matter of policy related 
to the handling' of domestic cases. 
Since the amalgamation of the Legal 
Aid Society with the United Chari¬ 
ties, all such cases have been con¬ 
sidered first as social rather than as 
legal problems. The United Charities 
is a city wide organization, with the 
workers in each of its ten district 
offices experienced in dealing with 
abnormal families. Following the 
idea that it is not right to resort to 
law in a domestic difficulty unless 
everything else has failed, all do¬ 
mestic cases are considered and tab¬ 
ulated as family case work problems 
rather than as legal problems. If the 
social case worker feels that legal 
treatment is necessary, it is imme¬ 
diately resorted to. In the last year 
of the Legal Aid Society there were 
1,158 cases listed as domestic. 

In the last fiscal year of the Legal 
Aid Bureau, there were only 415 
domestic cases in which legal action 
was necessary, and which were listed 
in the case count of the Leg'al Aid 
Bureau. The Legal Aid Society did 
not carry on litigation in 1,158 do¬ 
mestic cases, for a majority of these 
cases were handled by that organiza¬ 
tion as social problems. The differ¬ 
ence now is that as long as domestic 
cases are social problems they are not 
included in the case count of the 
Legal Aid Bureau but appear m the 
family case work tabulation in the 
Family Social Work department of 
the United Charities. 


Collections Made for Clients 

Many of the cases that come to the 
Legal Aid Bureau are those involving 
wage claims and collections, which 
mean a great deal to the clients, but 
are too small to be handled by a 
private attorney, and which would 
be lost were free legal aid not avail¬ 
able. 

The following table shows the 
amounts collected through the efforts 
of the workers in the Legal Aid 
Bureau during the past three years, 
a very considerable amount to those 
interested. 

Number Amount 


*From Jan. 1, 1919 to Oct. 

1, 1919 . $22,388.27 

From Oct. 1, 1919 to Sept. 

30, 1920 . 1,066 29,332.30 

From Oct. 1, 1920 to Sept. 

30, 1921 . 1,254 65,038.78 

From Oct. 1, 1921 to Sept. 

30, 1922 . 1,406 42,592.82 


During the last fiscal year these 
collections were made in 1,231 cases, 
being an average of $34.60 per case. 
The cases in which money is involved 
are small wage claims, collections and 
probate matters. A few personal in¬ 
jury and compensation cases, also, 
have been handled. In most of these 
cases the clients are dependent upon 
charity at the time the case is handled 
by the Legal Aid Bureau. In some 
instances the cases have been refused 
by attorneys’ offices and sent by them 
to the Legal Aid Bureau. 

Advantage of Social Work and Legal 
Aid Co-Operation 

Following are summaries of two 
recent probate cases, showing the 
advantage of having social work done 
in certain legal cases: 

The case of Tony-was re¬ 

ferred to the Legal Aid Bureau by 
the Juvenile Court.. Tony was an 
orphan and was at the St. Charles 
School for Boys as a delinquent. His 
brother was killed during the World 
War and Tony was to receive $8.22 


*Last nine months of the Legal Aid Society. Number not available. 









48 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


a month in 240 monthly install¬ 
ments. The necessary proceedings 
were carried on in the Probate Court 
and the General Superintendent was 
appointed guardian of Tony’s estate. 
The social workers of the United 
Charities are asked to keep in touch 
with the minors, of whose estates 
the General Superintendent becomes 
guardian. 

Shortly after Tony’s release from 
St. Charles, he was found to have 
tuberculosis in active form. He was 
sent by the social workers of the 
United Charities to the Municipal 
Tuberculosis Sanitarium and, after 
about six months, released as cured. 
Employment was found for him at 
different times by the United Chari¬ 
ties and at the time this report is 
written he is working on a farm,— 
well, healthy and happy. 

His case is one of thousands of 
illustrations which could be given to 
show that the real need of applicants 
for legal or material aid is not money, 
but intelligent service. 

In fact, many think that the giving 
or obtaining of money alone often 
does more harm than good, so far as 
character development is concerned. 

What tragedies happen when such 
friendly counsel, as is given by the 
social workers of the United Chari¬ 
ties, is lacking, is shown by the fol¬ 
lowing case: 

“William” was referred to the 
Legal Aid Bureau by the company in 
which his father had been employed 
at the time of his death. The General 
Superintendent was appointed guard¬ 
ian of the estate in this case, as he 
was in the previous case. In this case, 
however, the final accounting was 
rendered, the estate closed and the 
guardian released when William was 
still a minor. The arrangement was 
that he could not draw any of his 
money without the consent of the 
Probate Court. Even though the 


Superintendent was no longer guard¬ 
ian, when William needed money he 
came to the Legal Aid to ask for 
assistance in obtaining it. No attempt 
was made to visit this boy in his 
step-brother’s home, or to advise him 
in any way. He was recently found 
in the county jail, having been held 
there for two months, charged with 
stealing an automobile. At the time 
this report is being written, he is in 
the House of Correction, committed 
by the Judge of the Criminal Court, 
before whom he plead guilty. Of 
course he might have done the same 
even though the United Charities’ 
workers had attempted to advise with 
him about his work and recreation. 
But no steps were taken to prevent 
his going wrong. Needless to say, 
something will be done for the boy 
when he is released. 

Organization of the Legal Aid Bureau 

There have been some changes in 
the organization of the work since 
the amalgamation. During the first 
year there were legal aid workers in 
five district offices of the United 
Charities, all the attorneys remain¬ 
ing in the general office. It was felt 
that the work of the two organiza¬ 
tions could be better correlated by 
being conducted in the district offices 
and that it would be a great saving 
of time to have all the legal aid cases 
in which court action was not neces¬ 
sary handled in the districts. After 
the first year it was found necessary 
to reduce the number of employees 
in the Legal Aid Bureau so there 
are now legal aid workers in only two 
of the districts, all the remainder of 
the work being done in the general 
office. 


Special Legal Clinics 

1 he Legal Aid Bureau is directed 
by the Senior Attorney. Under the 
Senior Attorney are four other at¬ 
torneys, three social workers in the 



LEGAL AID BUREAU 


49 



' 




Waiting Their Turn at the Legal Aid Bureau 


general office and two in the dis¬ 
tricts. In addition to the paid work¬ 
ers there are regular volunteers from 
the Junior League and some other 
individuals. 

Since October, 1919, the senior 
students from the Northwestern Uni¬ 
versity School of Law have been re¬ 
quired to work in the Legal Aid 
Bureau for eighty hours during their 
senior year. The Legal Clinic is 
under the direction of Professor El¬ 
mer M. Leesman, of the faculty of 
the Northwestern University School 
of Law. He has also acted as ad¬ 
visory counsel to the attorneys of 
the Legal Aid Bureau. Because of 
this organized connection with the 


faculty of the University, it is be¬ 
lieved that the standard of work in 
the Legal Aid Bureau has become 
higher and higher from year to year. 
In the fall of 1922, a similar arrange¬ 
ment was made with the senior stu¬ 
dents of De Paul University. 

Formation of Policies 

The policies of the Legal Aid Bu¬ 
reau are determined by the Legal Aid 
Committee of the Directors of the 
United Charities sitting in joint ses¬ 
sion with the Legal Aid Committee 
of the Chicago Bar Association. The 
appointment of a committee on legal 
aid by the Chicago Bar Association is 

























50 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


the most important advance step 
which has been made in legal aid 
work in Chicago for many years. The 
Board of Managers of the Chicago 
Bar Association have agreed to at¬ 
tempt to raise from the Bar Associa¬ 
tion the salaries of the attorneys in 
the Legal Aid Bureau and also of 
one clerk and one stenographer. The 
salaries of the social workers in the 
Legal Aid Bureau the United Char¬ 
ities seeks to raise from other sources. 

An important function of the Legal 
Aid Bureau has always been to make 
a record of difficulties in the admin¬ 
istration of justice and therefore to 
assist in bringing about improve¬ 
ments. Since the appointment of the 
committee, the reports of the work¬ 
ers in the Legal Aid Bureau go not 
only to the Directors of the United 
Charities, but also to the committee 
of the Chicago Bar Association. 

Matz Memorial Law Library 

Following the death of Mr. Ru¬ 
dolph Matz, who for years was the 
President of the Legal Aid Society, 
many of his friends contributed to 
a Rudolph Matz Memorial Fund. 
About a year ago the Legal Aid Com¬ 
mittee determined that this fund 
should be used in the establishment 
of a Rudolph Matz Memorial Li¬ 
brary. At Christmas time, 1922, Mrs. 
Matz presented to the Legal Aid Bu¬ 
reau Mr. Matz’s law library of 1,500 
volumes and also the sectional book¬ 
cases in which the books had been 
kept. Her gift was a most generous 
one and the Legal Aid Bureau now 
has an excellent law library. 

Low Cost of This Legal Service 

The work of the Legal Aid Bureau 
is separately budgeted and all of 
every contribution to the Legal Aid 
Bureau goes toward the work of the 


Bureau. As the United Charities 
found it unnecessary to increase office 
space when the amalgamation was 
made, the Legal Aid Bureau has not 
been charged with rent nor with some , 
other administrative costs. The main¬ 
tenance of the Bureau for the fiscal 
year, closing September 30, 1922, was 
$21,305.39. As there were 14,254 cases 
handled, the handling of each case 
cost about $1.50. The Legal Aid Bu¬ 
reau is the largest private law office 
in Chicago and handles its cases 
much more cheaply than any other 
office. 

Accomplishments Which Have Im¬ 
proved Legal Aid Service in 
Chicago 

It is important that justice should 
not be denied the poor. Organiza¬ 
tions which assist the poor in obtain¬ 
ing justice have an important place 
in the civic life of any community. 
The Legal Aid Bureau of the United 
Charities has more clients than any 
other similar organization in Chicago. 
As it is so important that the channels 
of justice should always be open, the 
work of the organization which through 
its attorneys represents the poor in their 
search for justice, should be most 
carefully supervised, directed and ade¬ 
quately supported. In the last three 
years certain definite steps have been 
taken to provide better supervision of 
the work and its more adequate sup¬ 
port. The outstanding accomplish¬ 
ments have been: 

First—In the handling of domestic 
cases by the experienced social workers 
of the United Charities. 

Second—In the appointment of a 
standing committee on legal aid by the 
Chicago Bar Association, which com¬ 
mittee has an equal voice with the stand¬ 
ing committee of the Directors of the 
United Charities in determining the 
policies of the Legal Aid Bureau. This 
committee while not under any obliga¬ 
tion to do so, has agreed to attempt to 
raise from the Chicago Bar Association 



LEGAL AID BUREAU 


51 


a certain proportion of the expenses of 
the Legal Aid Bureau. The responsi¬ 
bility to procure changes in the adminis¬ 
tration of justice which are shown to 
be needed by the experiences of the 
legal aid workers, also rests in part on 
this committee. 

Third—In the relationship which has 
been established with the Northwestern 
University School of Law, resulting in 
the Legal Aid Bureau having the serv¬ 
ices of the senior students of the Law 
School and a member of the faculty as 
advisory counsel. 

Court Work Done by Legal Aid 
Attorneys 

The statistics on the following- 
pages show the actual Court work 
done by the Attorneys of the Legal 
Aid Bureau of the United Charities 
from October 1st, 1919 to October 
1st, 1922. The court work, of course, 
is only a small part of the work car¬ 
ried on by the Attorneys. In fact, a 
major part of their time is spent in 
drawing up papers, interviewing 
clients and, in general, preparing 
their cases for trial. 

Court action as a means of en¬ 
forcing the Clients’ rights has been 
resulted to in a comparatively small 
number of cases, the litigated cases 
being only about 5 per cent of the 
total number of cases. This does not 
include the Probate Court work, ex¬ 
cept where there was some contest. 

The cases which do not get into 
Court are for the most part those 
in which satisfactory settlement was 
reached by negotiation and also those 
claims which after careful investiga¬ 
tion were discovered to be unfounded 
and hence were not pushed further. 

In comparing the Court Work of 
the Legal Aid Bureau with that of 
the old Legal Aid Society, it was 
found that the greatest difference was 
in the Probate work. The last re¬ 


port of the Legal Aid Society showed 
only fourteen Letters of Administra¬ 
tion and Letters Testamentary is¬ 
sued, eight Letters of Guardianship, 
and no Letters of Conservatorship, 
while each of the succeeding years 
show approximately three times as 
many estates handled. There are 
probably two reasons for this decided 
increase of Probate work. One is the 
increasing number of clients referred 
to the Bureau by the Judge of the 
Probate Court, the Assistant Judges, 
and also the clerks of the Court. The 
second reason is that the Superin¬ 
tendent of the United Charities acts 
as Administrator, Guardian or Con¬ 
servator for the clients who desire 
it, in all estates of $250.00 or less. 
Two of the Directors of the United 
Charities act as his sureties for these 
estates and thus the clients are 
saved the expense of having a surety 
company on their bond. Where the 
General Superintendent acts as Guar¬ 
dian, the cases are followed up by 
the United Charities Social Case 
Workers as set forth above, and other 
organizations, knowing of this ar¬ 
rangement, are referring an increas¬ 
ing number of cases to the Bureau 
on that account. 

One of the Attorneys devotes his 
entire time to this Probate work and 
is assisted in drawing up the many 
necessary papers by the Legal Clinic 
students. 

On October 1st, 1920, a new form 
of Attorneys’ Report was adopted, 
since it was thought desirable for the 
Report to show the type of case in¬ 
volved, that is, wage claim, insurance 
or the like, as well as the form of 
Court action taken. 

The report for the years 1919 and 

1920 is given alone while 1920 to 

1921 and 1921 to 1922 are combined. 







52 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


REPORT OF COURT WORK OF LEGAL AID BUREAU 

October 1, 1919 to October 1, 1920 


Appellate Court of Illinois, 
First District 

Appearances filed . 1 

CIRCUIT, SUPERIOR AND 


PROBATE COURTS 

Bills filed .21 

Cross-bills filed . 6 

Appearances filed .18 

Answers filed .17 

Contested motions .16 

Cases tried .17 

Judgments on Industrial Board awards. 2 

Cases continued.14 

Miscellaneous motions .36 

Hearings on default divorces. 8 

Default decrees set aside. 2 

Stipulations filed . 6 

Claims filed in receivership. 1 

Petitions filed— 

As poor person.10 

For support of child and alimony.... 15 

For rule to show cause.13 

For habeas corpus. 1 

For adoption . 3 

For change of name. 1 

Miscellaneous . 9 

Criminal cases defended. 1 

Petitions in Probate Court— 

For letters of administration, with will 

annexed . 1 

For letters of administration, and let¬ 
ters testamentary .24 

For letters of conservatorship.13 

For letters of guardianship.24 

To reopen estate. 1 

* For appointment of guardian ad litem. 2 

For sale of real estate. 1 

For citation . 8 

For leave to expend.16 

Miscellaneous .52 

Proof of Wills. 1 

Wills contested . 1 


Inventories filed . 

Claims filed. 

Claims allowed . 

Current accounts filed.1; 

Proof of heirship. 

Final accounts and reports filed and ap¬ 
proved .. 

Presumption of death orders. 

Costs released .. 

Decree for sale of real estate. 

COUNTY COURT 

Petition for adoption. 

Adoption decree . 

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COUR 

Petitions for allowance of claims in 

bankruptcy . 

Clearings before referee. 

MUNICIPAL COURT OF CHICAGO 

Suits started .It 

Suits defended .jj 

Alias issued. j 

Cases tried .1: 

Cases continued ..... . '} 

Cases settled before trial.;| 

Appearances filed . 

Judgments set aside. 

Petitions to sue as poor persons. 

Citations issued . 

Judgments confessed . 

Miscellaneous motions . 

Criminal cases defended. 

Warrants taken out—Court of Domestic 
Relations . 

INDUSTRIAL BOARD OF ILLINOi 

Petitions filed . 

Lump sum settlements. 

Hearings . 

Hearings on review. 

Petitions for review. 

Settled before hearing. 

Continuances . 

Stipulation for exemption by Board 
doctor . 







































































LEGAL AID BUREAU 


53 


omparative Report for Years October 1, 1920, to October 1, 1921, and 

October 1, 1921, to October 1, 1922 


ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT 

Year Year 
1920-21 1921-22 

r rit of Error—Won. 1 

ISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED 
STATES 

[aims in bankruptcy filed... 10 63 

earings on contested claims 2 

APPELLATE COURT 

ral argument on brief. 1 

IRCUIT AND SUPERIOR COURTS 
ills Filed 

. 9 18 


. 

lvorce 


o declare trust. 1 

nnulment . 1 

eal estate . 1 

Dntract . 1 

jparate maintenance . 

artnership accounting. 

reditor’s bill . 

ppearances Entered 

ivorce . 20 

sparate maintenance . 2 

nnulment . 2 

oreclosure . 2 

ersonal injury . 4 

ander . 1 

amage to Personal Property 
nswers Filed 

ivorce .16 

sparate maintenance. 1 

nnulment . 1 

oreclosure . 2 

ross Bills Filed 

ivorce . 6 

eparate maintenance . 

•eclarations Filed 

ersonal injury . 

leas Filed 

•amage personal property... 

ersonal injury . 4 

lander . 


3 

1 

2 

2 

1 

27 


25 


13 

1 


DEMURRERS . 2 

Defaults Set Aside 

Divorce . 2 

Default Decrees Set Aside 

Divorce . 4 

Petition For Temporary Alimony 

Divorce . 9 20 

Annulment . 1 

Petitions To Increase Alimony 

Divorce . 2 3 

Rule to Show Cause 

Divorce .18 48 

Separate maintenance . 2 2 

Petition to Sue As Poor Person 

Divorce . 1 5 

Separate maintenance . 1 

Annulment . 1 

Petition for Attachment. 1 6 

Petition for Injunction. 1 4 

Petitions to Set for Hearing. 7 5 

Miscellaneous Petitions or 

Motions .28 28 

Continuances .30 44 

Contested Motions .23 58 

Petitions for Writ of Habeas 

Corpus . 4 

Petitions for Writ of Ne 

Exeat . 1 

Petitions for Adoption. 2 

Hearings on Adoption. 2 

Default Decrees Granted 

Divorce .14 9 

Separate maintenance . 1 1 

Annulment. 1 1 

Partnership accounting. 1 

Cases Tried and Won. 7 17 

Cases Tried and Lost. 1 

Settled Before Trial. 1 ($2,500) 

(personal injury) 

Judgment of Industrial Board 

Award.a. 4 1 

Stipulations Filed .4 9 


Appeal from Industrial Board 3 1 





























































54 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


MUNICIPAL COURT 


Suits Started 

Wage Claims.82 94 

Collection .38 79 

Contracts not otherwise 

classified . 9 26 

Garnishment . 8 6 

Attachment . 2 1 

Landlord and tenant. 5 7 

Recovery of personal property 5 11 

Personal injury . 6 12 

Damages to personal propertyl2 6 

Insurance .15 7 


Total .182 249 

Set Offs Filed. 1 

Affidavits of Merit Filed.18 15 

Alias Filed.33 62 

Suits Defended 

Collections .15 7 

Contracts not otherwise 

classified . 4 3 

Garnishment . 5 2 

Attachment . 1 1 

Landlord and tenant.25 26 

Recovery of personal property 1 2 

Personal injury . 1 

Damage to personal property 4 

Criminal defense . 4 

Continuances .154 124 

Settled Before Trial 

Wage claims. 9 9 

Collection . 7 19 

Garnishment . 2 1 

Contract . 3 4 

Attachment . 1 1 

Personal injury . 2 4 

Damages to personal property 2 

Insurance . 5 2 

Petition to Sue as Poor 

Person . 3 10 

Citations . 3 13 

Judgments Confessed . 3 7 


Judgments Set Aside. 1 6 

Miscellaneous Motions.32 34 

Executions Issued .43 85 

Cases Tried and Won 

Wage claims.58 80 

Collections .35 43 

Contract. 8 24 

Attachment . 2 6 

Landlord and tenant.24 28 

Recovery of personal propertylO 10 

Personal injury . 3 3 

Damages to personal property 5 7 

Criminal defense . 2 1 

Insurance . 4 5 

Support of wife and child.... 1 8 

Total .160 225 

Cases Tried and Lost 

Wage claims . 2 5 

Collections .10 11 

Contract . 1 10 

Attachment . 1 

Landlord and tenant.12 3 

Recovery of personal property 1 4 

Personal injury . 4 3 

Damages to personal property 1 2 

Total .32 39 

Judgments Levied On. 4 10 

Amount of 

Judgments .$11,880.67 $9,469.4 

INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 
Applications Filed 

Fatal cases . 2 3 

Cases involving permanent 

disability . 9 28 

Other non fatal . 9 26 

Lump Sum Settlement 

Permanent disability . 4 5 

Non fatal . 2 2 

Petitions for Review. 6 8 

Original Hearings 

Fatal . 4 2 



































































LEGAL AID BUREAU 55 


Permanent disability . 6 21 

Other non fatal.10 25 

Hearings on Review 

Fatal . 1 

Permanent disability . 3 8 

Other non fatal . 7 10 

Cases Settled Before Trial 

Fatal . 1 

Permanent disability . 3 7 

Other non fatal. 8 8 

Amount of Settlements 

Before Trial. $4,872.50 $2,633.25 

Amount of Awards. $23,305.85 

Stipulation for Examination by 
Industrial Board Doctor... 4 


Continuances . 20 26 

PROBATE 

Letters Issued 

Deceased .19 23 

I Minor .23 26 

Insane .17 12 

Proof of Will. 2 6 

Wills Contested. 1 

Proof of Heirship. 20 20 

Inventories Approved 

Deceased .24 33 

Minor .35 40 

Insane .17 18 

Appraisement Approved.. ....10 12 

Widows and Childrens 

Award .14 11 

Appraisements Waived . 5 6 

Costs Released or Retaxed 

Deceased .24 32 

Minor .16 36 

Insane . 7 2 

Petition for Sale of Real 
Estate . 3 2 


Decrees for Sale of Real 

Estate . 2 

Reports of Sale of Real 

Estate . 2 

Petition for Sale of Per¬ 
sonality . 2 2 

Claims Filed . 7 10 

Hearings on Contested Claims 3 6 

Amount of Claims 

Allowed . $822.25 $1,477.74 

Petition for Citation on Summons 

Deceased . 8 12 

Presumption of Death. 5 1 

Current Account Approved 

Deceased . 8 

Minor . 5 19 

Insane . 5 8 

Final Accounts Approved 

Deceased .17 35 

Minor .20 34 

Insane .11 10 


Petitions for Expenditures 
for Support, etc. 


Deceased . 1 13 

Minor .34 50 

Insane .15 9 

Petition for Restoration. 1 1 

Hearings on Contested 

Motions or Citations. 3 7 

Petition to Settle Cause of Action 

Deceased . 1 

Minor .,. 2 1 

Petition to Reopen Estates 

Deceased .:. 2 1 

Minor . 3 1 

Miscellaneous Motions or 
Petitions .23 12 































































: 4 f : 


W^rm 


"■ C^h 1 ' 

■: .*7i*.lltT. 




mm 




■£, ,'^Vv 1 * ' § >$| 










■ ft'ICB! • 


56 


Mary Crane Nursery and Health Center 
















































CHAPTER V. 

Mary Crane Nursery and 
Health Center 


A GLANCE at the map of Chi- 
cago inserted at the end of this 
“*■ ■** book, reveals some portions of 
it thick with significant black dots. 
Near the center of the city, a half 
block from Halsted Street on Gilpin 
Place, where the black dots are thick¬ 
est, you will note a big star. Uhe 
black dots represent poor families 
who asked the United Charities for 
help last year. The star indicates the 
location of Mary Crane Nursery and 
Health Center, conducted by the 
United Charities. 

It is a star of hope among those 
black spots, for from it beams of 
helpfulness and healthfulness enter 
into many of the dismal homes of 
the manifold nationalities living in 
that neighborhood. To the weary, 
puzzled, foreign mothers who are 
fighting their lonely way in this 
crowded section—and lonely it surely 
is for them—Mary Crane Nursery 
has been a bright spot in an othet- 
wise drab and sordid existence. 


“What is the one most disagree¬ 
able thing in your life,” asked a 
United Charities case worker of one 
of these poor women recently. “To 
live among thousands and have no 
one to talk to,” was the answer. 

To meet this great lack of neigh¬ 
borliness in this population center of 
Chicago, where more than a half mil¬ 
lion people are crowded within a 
square mile, and as the outgrowth of 
a conviction on the part of leading 
social workers of Chicago that the 
small children of those mothers who 
had to work needed some place at 
which they might be properly cared 
for, Mary Crane Nursery was estab¬ 
lished in 1909. 

The building was constructed by 
the late Richard T. Crane, Sr., and 
his children as a memorial to Mrs. 
Mary Crane, their wife and. mother, 
and no more fitting memorial could 
be imagined than this place to which 
the mother and the child of the poor 
may come for help. 


57 



































58 SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


The nursery is located at 818 Gilpin 
Place, adjacent to Hull House. The 
title of the lot and building rests with 
Hull House, but the United Charities 
of Chicago holds a lease with the op¬ 
tion of renewal for any desired term 
of years. The estimated value of the 
property and equipment is $60,000; 
the yearly expense of conducting the 
work is at present about $17,000. All 
expenses of operation are borne by 
the United Charities from special 
donations made for the purpose, and 
from the interest derived from a 
$100,000 bequest given to the United 
Charities by Richard T. Crane, Sr. 
The building now houses not only a 
nursery, but also a Health Center, 
which serves the entire community, 
the Mary Crane District office of the 
United Charities and an Infant Wel¬ 
fare Station. 


Whom the Nursery Serves 

The admission of children to the 
nursery is based upon the family cir¬ 
cumstances, and is determined after 
a careful inquiry by the social case 
worker of the United Charities. 

Mothers who are poor home mak¬ 
ers, primarily because of mental ca¬ 
pacity and partly because of lack of 
training, invalided mothers, mothers 
who prefer to work in a factory 
rather than remain in their own 
homes, widowed mothers whose pen¬ 
sion or other means of support is 
only partially sufficient for the family 
needs, and quite a few widowers de¬ 
pend upon the nursery for the proper 
care of their children. 

Admission to the nursery is based 
upon other important conditions as 
well as upon the economical situation 
of the family. Not infrequently the 
social workers of the district find 
some child peculiarly in need of spe¬ 
cial care, possibly a child with a bad 
heart or one exceptionally under¬ 
nourished, or a child presenting be- 
haviouristic difficulties. 


The nursery accommodates seven¬ 
ty-five children. Children who attend 
range in ag'e from nine months to ten 
years. During the fiscal year 1921-22 
the average day’s attendance was 
sixty-one. This represents only a 
nine months’ period as the nursery 
was closed during the summer for 
lack of funds. 

The nursery physician examines all 
children before admission, decides the 
diet upon which they shall be put, 
and has charge of their general physi¬ 
cal condition. The procedure is in 
accordance with the decisions of the 
Chicago Association of Day Nurs¬ 
eries. Record cards are kept and a 
continuing record is also kept of the 
child’s progress in health, school, 
play and development. 

Educational Activities 

The children are received at the 
nursery at 7:00 A. M. daily, except 
Sundays. The nursery cares for pub¬ 
lic school children from seven to 
eight-thirty o’clock in the morning, 
and three to five o’clock in the after¬ 
noon on school days, and also on 
Saturday mornings. Between four 
and five o’clock is the play hour for 
these older children, and on certain 
days each week special instruction is 
given in various matters of interest to 
these older boys and girls. Sewing 
classes have been formed to help the 
children mend and learn how to make 
their own clothes. They also mend 
for the nursery, and make costumes 
for their plays, etc. 

The nursery is in touch with the 
public schools attended by the chil¬ 
dren, their monthly cards are in¬ 
spected and help given the backward 
child in his homework. Through co¬ 
operation with the public library, 
fifty volumes have been supplied for 
the use of this group. 

The Art, Music, and Dancing 
Classes at Hull House are also util¬ 
ized by these children, there being a 







MARY CRANE NURSERY AND HEALTH CENTER 


59 



Children at Work in the Montessori School Room 


very close relationship and co-opera¬ 
tion with these Hull House activities. 
School boys under ten receive gym¬ 
nasium and special class work at the 
Boys’ Club at Hull House. 

Dramatic play of various sorts is 
carried on sometimes resulting in the 
outgrowth of a real play, in which 
the children construct their own 
lines, draw and paint their own scen¬ 
ery, and make their own costumes. 

All of the older children assist reg¬ 
ularly in little tasks about the nur¬ 
sery, for which they are fitted. Two 
girls each week prepare for the Sew¬ 
ing Class and straighten the room 
after the class. They put materials 
away, brush, up the scraps, etc. Two 
other girls assist with the children 
in the Montessori Section. Two as¬ 
sist in the Infant Department, and 
two in the dining room. Others roll 
bandages, etc., under the direction of 
the dispensary nurse. Their duties 
alternate so that each child gets in¬ 
struction in every department. The 
boys sweep the walks, empty waste 
baskets, mend furniture, and do other 


“handy man” tasks about the build¬ 
ing. Great interest in performance of 
these tasks has been engendered 
among the children. 

The children under three years of 
age are cared for in the Infant De¬ 
partment which is located on the 
third floor of the nursery, and con¬ 
sists of a sleeping room and a large 
play room. Children in this depart¬ 
ment are placed in the hands of com¬ 
petent nurses. 

The children between the ages of 
three years and six years are cared 
for in the Montessori Department— 
this system of educational instruction 
having been instituted at the nursery 
in 1922. 

In the Montessori School, the chil¬ 
dren develop through their practical 
exercises the ability to wash and 
dress themselves, set the table, serve 
the food, wash the dishes, put away 
and keep in order their utensils and 
the room. 

The accompanying illustrations 
show the activities carried on through 






































60 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 



Montessori School Children at Their Noon Meal 


the day and the children using the 
Montessori material. This is designed 
to develop observation and the power 
to compare and form judgments. 
Through the songs, rhymes, stories 
and group plays, the imagination and 
initiative of the children grow into 
better control and co-operation. It 
often happens that children entering 
the public schools after this training 
are graded a year in advance of their 
age. 

A Community Health Center 

We conserve our forests, our 
mines, our water power, our horses, 
our cows, our pigs, but up to recently 
we gave little attention to the con¬ 
servation of human life and still less 
to the conservation of the babies and 
children of our congested poor dis¬ 
tricts. 

Mary Crane Nursery has not only 
fulfilled the purpose for which it was 
erected—namely, to furnish day care 
to children of poor working mothers, 
and to train bewildered and incompe¬ 


tent women in household tasks—but 
it has also through the successive 
years since its establishment devel¬ 
oped into one of the most important 
child health centers in Chicago. 

Four rooms on the ground floor of 
the nursery are now devoted to dis¬ 
pensary use with a doctor and nurse 
in daily attendance. 

Here each child, upon entering the 
nursery, is given a complete physical 
examination and a detailed record of 
physical findings is made. A less in¬ 
tensive examination is given by the 
doctor after every absence, and a 
daily inspection is made by the nurse. 
By this means, contagion is pre¬ 
vented, and illness of any kind de¬ 
tected in its first stages. As a result, 
last year’s record shows no conta¬ 
gious diseases, no epidemics other 
than colds, and no quarantine. 

In addition, the emphasis placed in 
this inspection upon cleanliness, 
proper clothing and general health 
habits is an educational force in rais- 








MARY CRANE NURSERY AND HEALTH CENTER 


61 


ing the standards of the mothers who 
bring the children. 

The children are weighed and 
measured every month by the dis¬ 
pensary nurse, and records and charts 
are kept. Besides caring for the 
health of the nursery children, 
through constant observation and 
frequent re-examination, the dis¬ 
pensary is open to all children up to 
the age of fourteen years, and the 
accompanying table shows the num¬ 
ber of cases handled in the past year, 
and the nature of the diagnoses re¬ 
ported. 

Attendance at Health Center 

320 Dental Treatments 

515 Physical Examinations 

246 Children for United Charities 
Summer Outing 

269 Children for Hull House Sum¬ 
mer Outing 

140 Physical Examinations for Admis¬ 
sion to Nursery 

2646 Medical Inspections and Treatments 
3621 


Physician reports 1338 diagnoses were 
recorded, of which over one-quarter dealt 
with skin lesions and over one-third with 
respiratory tract affections. 

Patients who cannot be cared for 
in this dispensary are referred to 
other medical agencies, such as 
county doctor, Visiting Nurse Asso¬ 
ciation, charity hospitals and free 
clinics. The cases are then followed 
up by the dispensary nurse. 

In addition to this daily dispensary, 
there are three other health agencies 
in the nursery. The Infant Welfare 
Society maintains a station which is 
open two afternoons a week. Here 
all nursery babies under two years 
are registered for weekly inspection 
and advice given by baby specialists. 

A dental clinic is conducted for 
half a day once a week with a dentist 
from the City Department of Health 
in charge. The nursery children and 
groups from two neighboring public 
schools are cared for. 



Corner of the Infant Department 
















62 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 




The Dental Room of the Nursery Dispensary 

Nutrition classes are conducted by 
the Elizabeth McCormick Fund, and 
all undernourished children in the 
nursery, or any found through ex¬ 
amination in the dispensary, are given 
instruction. 

As a part of the health work, chil¬ 
dren are taught to take baths, use 
tooth brushes, handkerchiefs and in¬ 
dividual towels and soap. The school 
children have formed health clubs for 
competing in such matters as: Sleep¬ 
ing with the windows open, drinking 
milk instead of coffee for breakfast, 
and making a proper selection of food 
from the school cafeteria for their 
luncheons. 

Special Diets for the Children 

The diet of the babies is planned 
by the Infant Welfare Society and 
consists, chiefly, of cereals, strained 
vegetables, milk and fruit juices, with 
bread and butter. 


One baby eleven months old en¬ 
tered in a very bad condition., It 
was found that she had a rather stub¬ 
born case of diarrhea, caused by the 
neglect and wrong-feeding on the 
part of the parents. After two weeks’ 
time, in spite of her disturbed condi¬ 
tion, she had gained six ounces. In 
four weeks the condition had entirely 
cleared, and she had gained fourteen 
ounces. She has continued to gain 
and improve steadily. 

Another child, fifteen months old 
upon entrance, was found to be 17 
per cent under weight, due to im¬ 
proper feeding. In the first three 
weeks she gained three ounces; in 
the next four weeks she gained 
twenty-five ounces. 

The diet of thei children in the 
Montessori School is the result of a 
study made by Chicago University 
students, under the supervision of 
Miss Lydia Roberts, head of the 
Home Economics Department. It is 
interesting to know that the children 
entering at an early age form proper 


Welcoming a Newcomer to the Nursery 




























MARY CRANE NURSERY AND HEALTH CENTER 


63 


food habits and gain regularly and at 
the prescribed rate, while children en¬ 
tering at four, five and six years of 
age often become real problems be¬ 
fore they can be taught to eat cereals 
and vegetables, such as carrots and 
spinach. The few persistently under¬ 
nourished cases belong in this group 
and consist of children from 10 per 
cent to 20 per cent under weight. 

All children under six years of age 
receive three meals and two to three 
hours of sleep daily. 

The public school children receive 
a lunch of sandwiches, cocoa or milk 
in the afternoon, except on holidays 
when they are in attendance all day 
and receive the mid-day dinner. 

Home Atmosphere Prevails 

Though the description here given 
would tend to suggest the work as 
organized under three distinct and 
isolated departments, each depart¬ 
ment overlaps in a way to eliminate 
any such feeling on the part of the 
children. Every effort is made to 


create a home atmosphere and to de¬ 
velop a feeling of ownership and re¬ 
sponsibility, co-operation and respect 
for the rights of all. 

In the nursery life there is de¬ 
veloped a spirit of co-operation and 
helpfulness decidedly interesting to 
watch. Each child is led to feel that 
everyone about the building is his 
friend, and that he has a very definite 
share in the life of the place, for 
which he is held responsible. With 
this feeling among the children it is 
only natural that a newcomer is 
quickly made at home, and that the 
question of discipline is very largely 
settled by the children themselves. 

That a decided influence is exerted 
upon the homes and parents of the 
children who attend the nursery can¬ 
not be doubted. They bring new 
standards of order and cleanliness 
into unkept homes; they are taught 
consideration for others and the right 
way of living, both mentally and 
physically. 



Some Mary Crane Nursery Babies 


















64 



















] 

j CHAPTER VI. 

I 

I Summer Outing Department 


T HERE are many people who 
would give all the money they 
j possess if they could only have 
1 health. 

a 

The thousands of helpless mothers 
'and little children who are annually 
Scared for by the United Charities 
"have no money, and far too many of 
them have very poor health. 

The United Charities cannot give 
these poor women and children 
money enough to make them inde¬ 
pendently wealthy, but believing in 
the good old adage that health is 
wealth, it conducts in behalf of these 
women and children, during the sum¬ 
mer months of each year, a big and 
vitally important health-giving de¬ 
partment—the Summer Outing De¬ 
partment. 

The country and camp outings ar¬ 
ranged each year by this department 
for the children and mothers of the 
families under the care of the United 
Charities are part of the general plan 
to rehabilitate these families. 


Only those who work among the 
poor of a large city, as do the social 
case workers of the United Charities, 
seeing day by day the results of life 
in congested quarters, can realize 
what a wonderful boon several weeks 
in the country during the summer is 
to the poor child and the overtired 
mother of the city. 

The children are refreshed and re¬ 
built, while the mothers at home or 
at camp, relieved of their cares and 
worries, get a real opportunity to re¬ 
cover their health and strength after 
a winter of striving for subsistence. 

The summer outing work of the 
United Charities is divided into three 
types of outings: country outings, 
camp outings and day outings. 

Country Outings 

The country outing work is distinc¬ 
tive with the United Charities, and 
experience has shown it to be the 
most helpful form of outing botk as 
to its physical and educational bene¬ 
fits. This type of outing was inavg- 


65 






66 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 



Country Outing Party Off for Tzao Weeks of Happiness 


urated by the old Chicago Bureau of 
Charities in the summer of 1888 in 
co-operation with the Chicago Daily 
News, which the year previous had 
established the “Daily News Fresh 
Air Fund” and tried out the camp 
idea with but mediocre success. 

Believing that the contact that the 
city children would have w r ith the life 
of the people residing in the small 
country towns and on farms, would 
be a valuable by-product of fresh air 
work, effort was made the following 
year to secure hosts among the coun¬ 
try folk down state and in Wisconsin. 
The plan was readily approved by the 
country people approached, and as a 
result many hundreds of little city 
“shut-ins” secured their first glimpse 
of wholesome country life and cus¬ 
toms. The idea spread rapidly, and 
it was but a few years before thous¬ 
ands of country homes were opened 
to the poor children of Chicago each 
summer. 


Finding Hosts 

The Summer Outing Department 
is organized to deal efficiently with 
the problem of finding places for the 
children. Early in the spring of each 
year, individuals, churches, lodges, 
social groups and benefit organiza¬ 
tions are circularized. Local com¬ 
mittees are formed. This local com¬ 
mittee canvasses the town and adja¬ 
cent country for volunteer hosts. The 
volunteers specify their desires as to 
age and sex. 

These homes are recommended by 
the local committee and then arrange¬ 
ments are made with the Summer Out¬ 
ing Department to send the children re-, 
quested, the children being selected by 
the district offices of the United Char¬ 
ities. As a result of this well-organized 
plan, each summer during the past 
thirty years from one thousand to three 
thousand poor children have enjoyed 
two weeks in the country. 






















SUMMER OUTING DEPARTMENT 


67 


The children sent to the country 
undergo a thorough physical examina¬ 
tion within forty-eight hours of their 
departure, in order to avoid sending 
out any child who may have a con¬ 
tagious illness. Their heads are 
cleansed, and every effort is made to 
send them to their country hosts in 
a wholesome condition. 

Railroads Make Plan Possible 

This unique outing plan has been 
made possible only through generous 
co-operation of the great railroad 
lines out of Chicago, which have for 
many years given free or reduced fare 
transportation for the purpose. 

The Chicago Daily News has been 
interested in this type of outing from 
the beginning, and has been a gen¬ 
erous contributor as well as advocate 
of the cause, and the whole press of 
the city has unselfishly joined in 
boosting the movement. 

For the last two years the Illinois 
Agricultural Association has also lent 
its endorsement to this form of wel¬ 
fare work, and made special effort 


through its farm bureaus in every 
county of the state to interest its 
members in becoming hosts of Chi¬ 
cago’s poor children for two weeks 
each summer. As the result of the 
Association’s effort, many new homes 
have been opened to the children 
during the last two years. 

The “Prairie Farmer,” one of the 
large agricultural journals in the 
Middle West, became interested dur¬ 
ing the summer of 1922, and gave 
much publicity to these country out¬ 
ings, opening many additional homes 
to Chicago “shut-ins” last year. 

Besides the health giving benefits 
of this form of outing, the children 
sent into wholesome country homes 
acquire new ideas of home life and 
living standards, which in many cases 
have become fixed ideals to strive for. 
Many have formed permanent friend¬ 
ships, and have been invited into the 
same homes summer after summer, 
and not a few as they have become 
older have taken up their residence 
in the country. 



Arrived—Meeting Their Country Hosts 

















68 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 



On the Grassy Slopes of Camp Algonquin 


Camp Algonquin 

Despite the fine co-operation the 
country people of Illinois and neigh¬ 
boring states have given the country 
outing work of the United Charities, 
there have never been enough places 
to send all the children who needed 
outings, and no place for the many 
rundown and overworked mothers of 
these same children to whom a short 
rest and fresh air is essential to pre¬ 
vent their complete breakdown. 

To meet somewhat the need of 
more outing places for the children 
and a place of rest for mothers, Camp 
Algonquin, one of the largest and 
best equipped summer camps in the 
country, was established in 1909. 

The camp occupies a beautiful site 
on the banks of the Fox River, about 
45 miles northwest of Chicago and 
\y 2 miles east of the village of Algon¬ 
quin. It now comprises thirty acres 
of wooded land, on which there are 
twenty permanent camp buildings in¬ 
cluding dormitories, nursery, hospi¬ 
tal, dining halls, laundry, storehouse 
and garage. There is also a large 
cement swimming pool. 


Tribune and Board of Trade 
Co-operation 

Most of the fine buildings at the 
camp have been built and equipped 
through the generosity of the Chi¬ 
cago Tribune and the Chicago Board 
of Trade, which from the inception 
of the camp have given this phase of 
the summer outing work of the 
United Charities splendid co-opera¬ 
tion and assistance. 

In addition to the investments in 
buildings and equipment made by 
these two organizations amounting to 
many thousands of dollars, each gives 
liberally toward the running expenses 
of the camp, and-the Tribune opens 
its newspaper columns so that the 
general public may have the oppor¬ 
tunity to help. 

Oak Park Churches Help 

The churches of Oak Park have 
also contributed a large share toward 
the completeness and efficiency of the 
camp. Through the deep personal 
interest of Dr. William E. Barton, 
pastor of the First Congregational 
Church of Oak Park, who has been 































SUMMER OUTING DEPARTMENT 


69 


for many years interested in this 
summer outing work for poor women 
and children, and who was instru¬ 
mental in the establishment of the 
camp, the congregations of Oak Park 
churches joined in the erection of a 
fine cottage-dormitory, and equipped 
the infant nursery, and have con¬ 
tinued to maintain these two units 
for many years. Last year they en¬ 
larged the nursery to double its for¬ 
mer capacity and re-equipped it. 

The Tribune, the Chicago Board of 
Trade, and the churches of Oak Park 
take pride in what they have been 
able to accomplish for the poor 
women and children of Chicago in 



Interior Tribune Dormitory 


co-operation with the United Chari¬ 
ties in this enterprise, and the United 
Charities is grateful for the splendid 
help it has had from these sources, 
which have made possible this big 
health camp for the benefit of the 
poor families under its care. 

Camp Algonquin is open from June 
15 to October 1 each year. Three hun¬ 
dred and fifty mothers and children 
can be accommodated at one time, 
and groups of approximately this 
size are sent out at intervals of two 
weeks throughout the camp season. 
However, many of the mothers and 
children who need more than a two 
weeks’ outing are kept for longer pe¬ 
riods, some throughout the summer. 



Board of Trade Dining Hall 


Special Health Work 

Everything possible is done toward 
bettering the health of the women 
and children at Camp Algonquin. A 
health program, in which the United 
Charities has the co-operation of the 
Infant Welfare Society, the Elizabeth 
McCormick Memorial Fund, the Chi¬ 
cago Municipal Tuberculosis Sani¬ 
tarium, and the Chicago Dental 
Society, has been developed for the 
camp to such an extent that it can 
safely be said that Algonquin is now 
one of the most efficiently organized 
health camps in the country. 

The children are all weighed and 
measured upon their arrival at camp, 
and those found underweight are 
given special attention as to diet and 
exercise during their stay in camp 
under the direction of trained nurses. 

The infants are cared for under the 
direction of the Infant Welfare So¬ 
ciety which assigns each summer two 



Board of Trade Members at Algonquin 















70 SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


Their First Visit to God’s Real Outdoors. 


trained nurses from its regular staff, 
and once a week holds a regular in¬ 
fant welfare clinic under the direc¬ 
tion of an infant welfare specialist. 

During the summer of 1922, one 
hundred and forty-two babies under 
two years of age were cared for at 
the nursery, approximately three- 
fourths of whom remained for two 
weeks, the others staying for periods 
varying from one to fourteen weeks. 
There were usually forty babies at 
camp at a time. At one time sixty 
babies were cared for by this clinic. 

Each child at the camp under two 
years is examined by the physician in 
charge, and the problems of its diet 
and care are discussed with the moth¬ 
ers and nurse. At this time the babies 
are undressed, weighed and examined. 
In addition to diet advice, recommen¬ 
dations are made by the physician as 
to treatment for minor illnesses. Sick 
children are referred to the regular 
camp physician. 

A general feeding regime is fol¬ 
lowed for the majority of infants, 
variations being made whenever the 
individual needs of the child de¬ 
mand. 


The Municipal Tuberculosis Sani¬ 
tarium assigned one of their staff 
nurses to the camp during the sum¬ 
mer of 1922, and this summer are 
assigning two nurses from their staff 
to the camp, who will devote their 
attention to the children and women 
with tendencies toward tuberculosis. 

Through the co-operation of the 
Chicago Dental Society, a well 
equipped dental room has been estab¬ 
lished at the camp, and during each 
season is in charge of a competent 
dentist who examines the teeth of all 
coming to the camp, and performs such 
dental work as there is immediate 
need. 

Camp Health Work Followed Up at 

Home 

This health work done at the camp 
means much to the women and chil¬ 
dren sent there, as recommendations 
of the health needs of those cared for 
at Algonquin are sent to the district 
offices of the United Charities, and 
upon the return of the campers to 
Chicago, their health needs are fol¬ 
lowed up by the district social case 
workers. 















SUMMER OUTING DEPARTMENT 


71 


In addition to the health activities 
at the camp, special recreational and 
educational activities are part of the 
daily camp program. Experienced 
play directors are in charge of the 
recreation work and the Chicago 
Board of Education provides two 
special teachers. 

Despite the many activities at 
Camp Algonquin and the complete¬ 
ness of its organization, there is little 
of the institutional about the spacious 
grounds and in the attitude of the 
staff. Every effort is made to give 
the mothers and children who are the 
camp guests a complete rest and free¬ 
dom from responsibility. The moth¬ 
ers and children go to the camp 
together, but the mothers have much 
of the care and worry of looking after 
the children lifted from their shoul¬ 
ders upon arrival at camp. 

In most cases the mothers’ great¬ 
est pleasure is in watching their chil¬ 
dren have a thoroughly good time 
and in seeing the pale little faces take 


on the color and appearance of robust 
good health. 

The frolics of the children take 
them back to their own childhood 
days; they forget their worries and 
troubles and give themselves up 
wholeheartedly to a thorough enjoy¬ 
ment of their surroundings. 

In a few days the color comes back 
to their cheeks, their spirits are re¬ 
vived and usually before their two 
weeks’ period has expired, they have 
regained their health and strength 
and are again able, with the help of 
the United Charities, to carry on the 
work of caring for their families. 

Camp Harlowarden 

Camp Harlowarden, a special ac¬ 
tivity of the Stock Yards District 
Council of the United Charities, con¬ 
ducted since 1912 for the benefit of 
“back o’ the yards” children predis¬ 
posed to tuberculosis, became in the 



Swimming Pool at Camp Algonquin, Built by the Chicago Board of Trade 

















Posing for Their Picture After a Hearty Dinner 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


summer of 1922 a special section of 
Camp Algonquin. This camp was 
previously located on the estate of 
Harlow N. Higinbotham near Joliet. 

In the spring of 1922, the Stock 
Yards District Council purchased five 
acres of land adjacent to Camp Al¬ 
gonquin and erected a dormitory that 
will house eighty children. 

In making this change of location, 
Camp Harlowarden secured the bene¬ 
fit of Algonquin’s organization and 
the use of many of the larger camp’s 
facilities, including meals at one of 
the dining halls, thereby effecting 
economies in operation and supervi¬ 
sion expense. 

The camp is now conducted under 
the supervision of the Superintendent 
of Camp Algonquin. It has, however, 
its own special staff of workers in¬ 
cluding a nurse, play director, and 
nature study teacher. 

The children sent to Camp Harlo¬ 
warden remain all summer, because 
of their condition. They are given 
special medical and nursing care, and 
every effort is made to bring them up 


to normal weight and health, and to 
fit them for the fight against the con¬ 
dition with which they are threatened. 

Children Show Big Improvement 

During the summer of 1922, eighty 
children were cared for at Harlowar¬ 
den. Marked improvement in weight 
and general physical and mental con¬ 
dition was made by nearly every 
child. Anaemic children returned to 
the city robust, and children who had 
been subdued and depressed by their 
home conditions when they arrived, 
returned bubbling over with enthu¬ 
siasm and happiness and with a new 
grip on life. 

The actual percentage of weight 
gains and losses made by the chil¬ 
dren at Camp Harlowarden during 
the summer of 1922 were as follows: 


Children gaining 800% or more. 1 

400% to 800%.10 

200% to 300%.18 

300% to 400%.10 

100% to 200%.19 

Less than 100%.... 16 
Children losing . 4 


78 





















SUMMER OUTING DEPARTMENT 


73 


Outings to Other Camps 

Outings for many of the women 
and children under the care of the 
United Charities who might other¬ 
wise have to go without them, are 
furnished by other organizations 
maintaining summer camps, and who 
generously co-operate with the 
United Charities. Last summer a 
total of 898 women and children se¬ 
lected by the United Charities were 
sent to Arden Shore Camp at Lake 


Bluff, Illinois, Holiday Home at Lake 
Geneva, Wisconsin, Bowen Country 
Club at Waukegan, Illinois, and to 
several smaller camps. 

Day Outings 

For some of the many poor women 
and children for whom it is impos¬ 
sible to arrange longer outings, day 
outings are arranged by the Summer 
Outing Department of the United 
Charities. These outings usually take 


Outings Given by the Summer Outing Department of the 
United Charities During the Summers of 1920, 1921 and 1922 


Camp Outings 



1920 

1921 

1922 

United Charities Camp Outings 




Algonquin. 

1610 

1804 

*1551 

Harlowarden. 

75 

80 

80 


1685 

1884 

1631 

Co-operating Camps —Individuals sent by United 




Charities: 




Arden Shore (Arden Shore Association). 

888 

839 

829 

Holiday Home (Lake Geneva Fresh Air Assn.). . . 

35 

50 

41 

Bowen Country Club (Hull House Association). . . 


.... 

20 

Kings Daughters Home. 

4 

.... 

1 

Camp Oronka. 



1 

Glen Ellvn. 

55 


6 

New Lennox. 

779 



Moodv Camp, Cedar Lake, Ind. 

21 


• « • • 

Christopher House Camp, Holland, Mich. 

2 


• • • • 

Bov Scout Camp, Cedar Lake. 

226 

• • • • 

• • • ■ 

Hinsdale... 

21 




2031 

889 

898 

Country Outings 




Country Outings . 

1120 

1158 

1371 

Special Requests . 

99 

102 

93 


1219 

1260 

1464 

Day Outings 

A 



Boat Outings . 

978 

1250 

2905 

Other Than Boat Outings . 

256 

122 

301 


1234 

1372 

3206 

Transportation For Other Agencies 



Sent to Camps and Country by Co-oferating 




Agencies — Transportation secured by United 




Charities. 

4263 

5081 

5216 


*Thirty-two families, 130 individuals, remained more than the regular two weeks period—some all 
summer. This accounts for the marked decrease in different individual outings. 








































74 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


the form of street car or bus rides to 
the city parks or bathing beaches, or 
a lake trip to Milwaukee and return. 

The Chicago Surface Lines and the 
Goodrich Transit Company have 
aided most generously in these forms 
of outings. The street car company 
has annually given 5,000 free street 
car tickets to the United Charities for 
distribution to other agencies, and for 
its own use in giving day outings. 
The Goodrich Transit Company has 
each year given a large number of 
tickets for boat trips to Milwaukee, 
Waukegan or Michigan City. 
Through this last source more than 
2,905 women and children enjoyed a 
wonderful day’s outing on Lake 
Michigan last summer. 

Transportation for Co-operating 
Agencies 

It has been for many years the gen¬ 
erous policy of the railroads running 
out of Chicago, to furnish free trans¬ 
portation to charitable and welfare 
agencies giving free summer outings. 


This is still the policy of the west¬ 
ern roads whose lines reach points in 
Illinois and Wisconsin, but for sev¬ 
eral years past the eastern roads 
whose lines enter Indiana and Michi¬ 
gan have been charging a reduced 
rate fare. 

For the purpose of simplifying the 
work of the railroads issuing Fresh- 
Air transportation, as well as assist¬ 
ing the other agencies engaged in 
summer outing work in Chicago, an 
arrangement is in effect between the 
railroads and the United Charities of 
Chicago whereby the various agen¬ 
cies doing Fresh-Air work may se¬ 
cure transportation by making appli¬ 
cation through the Summer Outing 
Department of the United Charities. 

During the summer of 1922 the 
Summer outing Department secured 
transportation from the railroads for 
thirty-three co-operating agencies, 
enabling them to send a total of 5,216 
women and children on outings. 












CHAPTER VII. 


Miscellaneous Activities 


Tribune Free Ice Fund 

Sharing in value with the Summer 
Outing work in diminishing the 
menace of hot weather in the homes 
of Chicago’s unfortunate is the free 
ice distribution made possible by the 
Free Ice Fund raised annually by the 
Chicago Tribune and administered by 
the United Charities. Ice is an ab¬ 
solute necessity wherever there are 
babies and growing children in order 
that their supply of milk may be kept 
sweet and pure. Particularly is it a 
necessity in the homes of the needy. 

Of recent years the price of ice has 
been almost prohibitive to the poor 
and long-continued hot spells brought 
an enormous demand. The Tribune’s 
pleas for the Ice Fund have been 
answered, however, with a wonder¬ 
ful generosity, and as a result, in so 
far as possible, every deserving call 
for ice was met. 

A total of 1,042,790 pounds of free 
ice were delivered to more than 2,000 
different poor families last summer, 
and 38 day nurseries were supplied 
with 222,000 pounds of ice during the 
year. The total cost of this distribu¬ 
tion in 1922 was $3,011.97, paid en¬ 
tirely from the Tribune Free Ice 
Fund. 

Benjamin B. Lamb Fund 

Benjamin B. Lamb, late of Chi¬ 
cago, bequeathed a portion of his 
estate to Isabelle C. Cramer, Eliza V. 
Rumsey and Anita McCormick 


Blaine, directing them to devote the 
property so given them “to such 
charities and in such a manner for 
charitable uses and purposes” as they 
might determine. 

Following what they were certain 
were Mr. Lamb’s wishes, the above 
trustees gave the property to the 
United Charities, to be known as the 
Benjamin B. Lamb Fund, the income 
from which (and the income only) to 
be used in making loans from time to 
time to meet needs occasioned by 
illness. It was also provided that 
the terms of such loans were to be 
fixed by the United Charities, with 
power to convert any such loan into 
a gift, and that any return loans, 
principal or interest should be added 
to and form a part of the trust es¬ 
tate. 

The Babies’ Milk Fund 

There is no argument about chil¬ 
dren needing milk. Milk is the first 
food which a family should buy, and 
the last which it should dispense with. 
It is almost impossible for any mother 
to bring up a normal, healthy child 
without it. Babies to live and grow 
must have it regularly. 

Milk is necessary for building 
strong, robust little bodies that can 
resist the many diseases that con¬ 
stantly threaten little children. How 
important it is to do that is empha¬ 
sized by the fact that out of every six 
babies born in Chicago, one dies be¬ 
fore reaching its fifth birthday. 

75 


76 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 





Mrs. Dorn was a good mother. She 
knew the value of milk, cereals, and green 
vegetables for growing children. But 
when her husband died she could barely 
earn enough to keep a roof over her 
babies’ heads. 

The United Charities has come to her 
assistance and her children are the health¬ 
iest, as well as the happiest in the neigh¬ 
borhood as a result of the intelligent 
feeding including the use of sufficient 
milk. 


There are two reasons why a great 
many Chicago babies, especially the 
babies of the poor, are not getting 
milk. 

The first reason is the lack of 
money. There are families in Chicago 
so poor that milk, which is a necessity 
for everybody else, is a luxury for 
them. They cannot buy it, even when 
the lack of it threatens the lives of 
their babies. 

The second reason is that many of 
these poor people are ignorant of its 
value. Milk, to these people, is just 
something to drink—cofifee or tea does 
just as well, and don’t cost as much. 

The United Charities is doing 
everything in its power to safeguard 
the health of the thousands of chil¬ 
dren in the poor families under its 


care, by helping them to get milk. 
Where it is Money that is needed to 
give the babies milk, the Money is 
supplied. Where the Ignorance of the 
parents is robbing the babies of milk, 
the patient reasoning of the United 
Charities Social Case workers wins 
over the parents. 

The United Charities needs $25,000 
to supply milk to poor families in 
1923. It actually spent more than 
$18,000 for this purpose in 1921-22. 
This is such a large and necessary sum 
of money to be raised, that the United 
Charities has established a special 
fund, designated as “The Babies’ Milk 
Fund,” for which it annually appeals 
to the public for special support. 



“But my kids, dey no eat da milk—dey 
lika da coffee, da macaron, and da bread. 
Dey eata be eg. Milk she no till, and costa 
lika da meat.” 

Such is the problem that United Chari¬ 
ties workers have to meet in many poor 
homes, where not only lack of food, but 
the use of "wrong kinds of food has 
resulted in the children becoming badly 
undernourished. Patient reasoning wins 
over ignorant mothers and when the chil¬ 
dren learn to use milk, immediate im¬ 
provement in their health results. 












CHAPTER VIII. 


Financial 


E VERY so often the newspapers 
print a picture or tell the story 
of some unfortunate family 
who are “up against” it through 
some particular dramatic circum¬ 
stance. 

Sometimes the names are printed 
and the address given. Sometimes 
the names are omitted or fictitious 
ones are supplied. No matter how— 
they are all real, and there are hun¬ 
dreds more like them that are not 
paraded before the general public. 

They are the mass of individual 
cases that day in and day out occupy 
the attention of the social case work¬ 
ers, the legal aid attorneys, and the 
other workers in the special depart¬ 
ments of the United Charities. 

Many of these cases possess more 
dramatic elements than some of those 
that reach print, and too often they 
are much more deserving of public 
sympathy and help. For it must be 
said that the dramatizing of special 
instances of misfortune, the picturing 
of human need in the press, never 


fails to get a sympathetic reading, and 
always brings donations for the 
sufferers—regardless of the real needs 
of the case—from a carelessly gener¬ 
ous public. 

In financing an organization like 
the United Charities, the temptation 
is always present, to use this highly 
successful method of the newspapers. 
It has the advantage of bringing 
actual human needs home to the gen¬ 
eral public, but it also has the dis¬ 
advantage of creating a sudden sym¬ 
pathy on the part of the contributor, 
that may soon die away without 
fundamental results to the financing 
of the organization. 

The United Charities of Chicago, 
with thousands of families annually 
calling upon it to help them meet 
their difficulties, must have a con¬ 
stant source of support, and support 
that is annually increasing, in order 
that the organization may keep pace 
with the growth of the city and do 
a better piece of work. 


77 

















78 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


To acquire a constant and increas¬ 
ing support, the United Charities 
maintains a financial department that 
is continually informing the general 
public of its needs and activities. 

There are times when this depart¬ 
ment cites actual cases of individual 
need, but as a rule a general educa¬ 
tional campaign that informs the 
public of special social conditions and 
the needs of the many unfortunates 
affected by those conditions is the 
method pursued. 

One would think that in a city of 
nearly three million inhabitants, no 
organization, performing such funda¬ 
mentally essential services as the 
United Charities does, would have 
difficulty in securing the necessary 
funds for its work. It would seem that 
for every person in need there would 
be hundreds ready and willing to help 
meet the need. 

The number of contributors to the 
work of the United Charities, how¬ 
ever, is still pitifully small, when 
compared with the population of the 
city—regardless of the fact that 
within the past few years they have 
practically tripled in number. 

Method of Financing 

The United Charities employs no 
paid solicitors. Such personal solici¬ 
tation as is done is the voluntary 
service of the directors and friends. 
It has found the mail appeal the most 
economical method and the one which 
produces the most lasting results. In 
a few emergencies, it has been neces¬ 
sary, in order to raise funds quickly, 
to make a special campaign with vol¬ 
unteer solicitors. This method has 
brought quick and sizable results but 
much of the new support gained in 
such campaigns has unfortunately not 
been lasting—the personal friendship 
between solicitor and donor or the 
natural disinclination of people to say 
“no”—have resulted in gifts without 
the giver’s real interest in the work. 


The United Charities needs inter¬ 
ested and sympathetic friends, as 
well as dollars—and when a gift is 
secured without interest or sympathy, 
it has not secured a lasting friend or 
supporter. The mail appeal educates, 
arouses sympathy, and finally makes 
friends by giving those appealed to 
the pleasure of saying “yes” by rea¬ 
son of the ease of saying “no.” 

The success of this method of 
financing the work of the United 
Charities is revealed in the following 
statistics of the Finance Department 
of the United Charities, showing the 
growth in number of contributors 
and the total amounts contributed 
during the past five fiscal years: 

Number of Individuals Contributing 
to United Charities 

(Five Year Period ) 


1917- 1918 . 5,428 

1918- 1919 . 7,577 

1919- 1920 . 9,750 

1920- 1921 . 12,049 

1921- 1922 . 16,557 


Many of these contributors made 
several gifts during the year, as is 
disclosed by the following table of 
contributions received: 

Number of Contributions Received 

(Three Year Period) 


1919- 1920 . 14,116 

1920- 1921 . 17,039 

1921- 1922 . 19,666 


While the above figures indicate 
the efficiency of the method employed 
by the United Charities in winning a 
constantly increasing number of 
friends and supporters, they also re¬ 
veal the comparatively small number 
of Chicago citizens who are support¬ 
ers of this general city-wide social 
service organization—a n u mber 
which should be many times greater. 

That this method is economical is 
demonstrated by the fact that 
$465,651 of the total income of $601,- 
960* for the fiscal year 1921-1922 was 
raised through the mail at a cost of 
less than eight per cent, including the 


difference between the total income and the income received through mail solicitation is accounted 
for by income from investment and the income raised by a special financial campaign in December, 1921. 













FINANCIAL 


79 




salaries and overhead of the financial 
department. 


Five Years Contributions 


Following is a comparative table 
showing the total amount of contribu¬ 


tions to the United Charities during 
the five year period ending October 

l * 1922 : Fiscal Year 


1917- 1918 

1918- 1919 

1919- 1920 

1920- 1921 

1921- 1922 


$307,720 

326,478 

357,138 

428,026 

516,597 


Where the Contributions Come From 

It is interesting to see where the 
support of this work comes from. A 
'‘spot” map of United Charities con¬ 
tributors during the last fiscal year 
appears at the end of this book. This 
map shows certain areas that might 
be expected to be thick with contri¬ 
butors’ “spots.” It also shows that 
many of the United Charities friends 
come from unexpected sections of the 
city, showing that the work done by 
the United Charities appeals to all 
classes. There are, however, lament¬ 
able “white” spaces on this map in 
between “spots” of the givers and the 
receivers. They indicate that there 
still remain great portions of Chicago 
citizenry that have not as yet mani¬ 
fested a social consciousness through 
their support of the United Charities. 

Amounts of Contributions 

What size contributions do people 
make to the United Charities is a 
question often asked. During the last 
fiscal year the United Charities re¬ 
ceived" thousands of $5.00 gifts or 
less, as well as thousands of more 
than that amount. The largest single 
gift during the year was that of 
$10,000 made by the Wieboldt 
Foundation. The largest gift of an 
individual was $/,000. More than one 
hundred gifts of $1,000 or more were 
received. Publication of the list of 
United Charities contributors has 
been discontinued for a number of 
years, owing to the expense entailed 
and in appreciation of a growing de¬ 


sire among contributors not to have 
their philanthropies made public. 

United Charities Budget 

The United Charities, like all large 
business concerns, budgets its work 
annually. It is not, however, always 
possible to foresee emergencies that 
may arise in the field of a charitable 
organization. Epidemics, disasters, 
sudden economic changes, and excep¬ 
tionally severe winters, often upset 
the most careful estimate of disburse¬ 
ments. In such cases, it has been the 
policy of the United Charities to meet 
the need and to depend upon a sym¬ 
pathetic public to help by making up 
the deficit created by the emergency. 

Budget for 1922-23 

Estimated Disbursements 

Family Social Service 

Cost of Service—District Super¬ 
intendents, Interpreters, Social 
Case Workers, Visiting House¬ 


keepers, Clerical Staff.$128,9/2 

Relief—Necessary Disbursements 
for Rent, Food, Clothing, Milk, 

Cash grants, etc. incidental to 

Social Service Relief..... 175,000 

Maintenance of ten district of¬ 
fices . 24,000 

General Administration (7/10 of 
General Office maintenance 
and salaries). 51,278 


Other Departments 

Mary Crane Nursery.$ 23,000 

Summer Outings and Camps. . . . 30,200 

Tribune Free Ice. 5,000 

Camp Harlowarden. 5,000 

General Office Relief. 7,000 

House of Social Service. 3,000 

Legal Aid Bureau 

Collections paid to Clients.... 26,000 

Salaries and Maintenance. 20,692 

Social Service Exchange for 

Service . 4,800 

General Administration (3/10 of 
General Office maintenance and 
salaries) . 26,977 


$530,919 


Demand Notes. 27,000 

Interest for year on notes. 1,350 


Total Estimated Disbursements.. .$559,269 

Assured Income 

Income from bequests to be used 


for general purposes.$ 40,849 

Benjamin F. Lamb Fund income 

for special purposes. 2,000 



































80 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


Income from Special Bequest and 

Nursery Earnings. 7,500 

Raised by Chicago Tribune. 5,000 

Raised by Camp Har. Com. 5,000 

Refunds from Out of Town Agen¬ 
cies . 2,000 

Office Rentals. 3,000 

Collections Reed, for Legal Aid 

Clients . 26,000 

Income from Legal Aid Bequests. 1,000 


Total Esitmated Assured Income. .$ 92,349 
Total Estimated Disbursements.. .$559,269 
Less Assured Income. 92,349 


Amt. to be raised from Private 
Contributions.$466,920 


Annual Financial Statements 

On the pages that follow appear 
the annual financial statements, as 
prepared and audited by Messrs. 
Arthur Young & Co., Certified Public 
Accountants. The accounts of the 
United Charities are audited monthly 
as well as annually. 

The report of Disbursements and 
Income covers these items for the 
past three fiscal years, and makes an 
interesting comparison of the ex¬ 
penditures and receipts of these three 
years. 

Legacies and Trust Funds 

To reach the highest degree of effi¬ 
ciency and economy in its operation, 
the United Charities must look far 
ahead and follow a course which 
leads gradually to the accomplish¬ 
ment of those larger purposes of 
which the time element is an essen¬ 
tial part. 

Assurance of a certain income an¬ 
nually is absolutely necessary in 
carrying out a steady and progressive 
program of work. This is unattain¬ 
able when the sole dependence is on 
yearly contributions, subject to wide 
fluctuations caused by alternating pe¬ 
riods of prosperity and depression. 

In this connection, it is worthy of 
note that the heaviest demands fall 
upon an organization like the United 
Charities in years of financial depres¬ 
sion, when charitable contributions 
dwindle. The greatest need, there¬ 
fore, occurs at those times, when the 


V 

provision with which to meet it is 
smallest. Against this serious diffi¬ 
culty, a fixed income sufficient at 
least to guarantee the stability and 
permanence of its service is the only 
safeguard. 

For this reason, the Directors of 
the United Charities are endeavoring 
to place its work on a secure basis 
by the accumulation of permanent 
assets which will produce a sufficient : 
nucleus of support in periods of light 
income. It is the hope of the Board | 
of Directors that some of the many 
interested friends of the United Char¬ 
ities may sympathize with this ob¬ 
ject, and assist in achieving this de-j 
sirable condition. 

The officers and the Board of Di¬ 
rectors of thq' United Charities are 
simply trustees and administrators ‘ 
for the public in the important service 
which the United Charities performs 
for the community, and as such they 
shall be happy to place before you 
full information upon any or all de¬ 
partments, or special phases of the 
work done by the United Charities. 

Your interest, whether it take the 
form of a gift in the near future, or , 
a legacy to be drawn ultimately from 
your estate, will go toward the per¬ 
manent improvement of conditions 
among those unfortunate citizens of i 
Chicago who, because of misdirected 
effort, ignorance, or unavoidable 
physical disability, are unable to fight 
the battle of life alone. 

Legacies and gifts, restricted or 
otherwise, are placed in one general 
or Capital Fund, the principal of the 
unrestricted funds and the interest ' 
on restricted funds when not other¬ 
wise specified, being available for 
general purposes. It has been nec¬ 
essary occasionally to draw upon the 
unrestricted part of this Capital Fund 
to meet deficiencies arising from in¬ 
adequacy of contributions. The Cap¬ 
ital Fund on September 30 1922, 
showed a balance of $879,403.82. 

Below is published a complete list 
of the bequests, trust funds, and an- 




















FINANCIAL 


81 


nuities of which the United Charities 
has been the beneficiary, in the 
chronological order of their receipt: 


Bequests Received by the United 
Charities of Chicago 


Name of Donor 

Date 

Amount 

Gibbs, John S. 

.1891 

$ 1,000.00 

Wadhams, Seth . 

.1891 

125,000.00 

Crerar. John . 

. 1892 

50,000.00 

Kavanagh, Charles . 

.1895 

19,000.00 

Rosenfeld, Henrietta . . . 

.1896 

1,000.00 

Stickney, Elizabeth H .. 

. 1899 

10,000.00 

Blackstone, Timothy B. 

.1900 

25,000.00 

Keith, Sarah Miller. 

.1900 

500.00 

Pullman, George M . . . . 

. 1900 

10,000.00 

King, Aurelia R. 

. 1901 

1,000.00 

Rosenberg, Jacob . 

.1901 

1,000.00 

Jackson, Huntington W. 

. 1902 

1,000.00 

Page, Florence Lathrop. 

. 1907 

12,000.00 

Trusdell, Charles E. 

. 1907 

2,000.00 

Tilton, Lucretia J. 

.1909 

5,000.00 

Stirling, William R. 

.1910 

5,000.00 

Brewster, Edward L.... 

.1911 

10,000.00 

Ismond, Robert E. 

.1912 

5,000.00 

Buckingham, May . 

.1913 

10,000.00 

Smith, Sylvester . 

.1913 

10,000.00 

Tobey, Frank B. 

.1913 

5,000.00 

Barnhart, Kenneth . 

.1914 

5,000.00 

Crane, Richard T. 

.1914 

100,000.00 

Cole, Laura Ethel. 

.1914 

10.00 

Hill, Martha S. 

.1915 

20,000.00 

Morris, Edward. 

.1915 

12,500.00 

Sprague, A. A. 

.1916 

10,000.00 

Walker, Elia M. 

.1917 

4,402.15 

Durbin, Eva C. 

.1918 

1,000.00 

Orr, Mary H. 

.1918 

5,234.00 

Southwell. Henry E.... 

.1918 

25,000.00 

Scott, Sina . 

.1918 

1,000.00 

Bostford, Henry . 

.1919 

11,000.00 

Brown, Mary . 

.1919 

1,481.97 

Holt, Charles S. 

.1919 

1,000.00 

Lobenstine, William G. 

.1919 

10,000.00 

Lehmann, Augusta. 

.1919 

25,000.00 

Thorne, Geo. R. 

.1919 

25,000.00 

Sinai, Boris J. 

.1919 

2,500.00 

Smallwood, Helen . 

1919-21 

300.00 

Nathan, Adolph . 

1919-23 

11,000.00 

Anderson, Wm. G.. 

.1920 

1,000.00 

Gregory, Robert B. 

.1920 

5,000.00 


Harris, Emma Gale.1920 

Palmer, Bertha Honore.. 1920-2 

Patten, James A.1920 

Wilder, Thos. Edward... 1920 

Armstrong, Frank .1921 

Blacke, Nellie A.1921 

Ettinger, Charles D.1921 

Nestor, Mary .1921 

Seipp, Catherine .1921 

Vineberg, Harris E.1921 

Heron, Michael .1922 

Lamb, Benjamin B.1922 

Lord, Lura .1922 

Morris, Joseph Ralston.. 1922 

Roberts, Kate H. P .1922 

Thompson, Leverett .... 1922 
Waller, Lina S.1922 


5,000.00 

30,000.00 

5,000.00 

5,000.00 

10,000.00 

150,000.00 

9,060.86 

500.00 

5,000.00 

1 , 000.00 

8,211.84 

29,321.47 

5,114.83 

5,000.00 

3,918.75 

10,000,00 

20,000.00 


Total 


$888,055.87 


Trust Funds Held for the Benefit of 
United Charities of Chicago 

Name Date Amount 

Bartlett, Dora Tripp.1917 $ 12,500.00 

Northern Trust Co., Trustee 

Cable, Benjamin S.1917 15,000.00 

Northern Trust Co., Trustee 

Eckhart, B. A...1921 10,000.00 

Chicago Community Trust, Trustee 

Kimball, Charles F..1921 9,500.00 

State Bank of Chicago, Trustee 

Ryerson, Martin . 40,000.00 

Northern Trust Co., Trustee 


Annuities 

Harris, Norman W..1917 $2,000.00 a year 
Noyes, LaVerne ....1919 5,000.00 a year 


Bequests Not Paid 


Lathrop, Bryan .1916 

Templeton, Thomas.1917 

Primley, E. S......1918 

Palmer Bertha Honore... .1918 

York, Jeanetta.1920 

Marquis, Emily C.1920 

Glaspell, Harrison J.1920 

Lamson, S. Warren.1920 

Meyer, Felix .1921 

Swift, Mrs. G. F.1922 

Otley, James J.1922 


Farwell, Ava A. (In trust).1918 


$25,000.00 

10,000.00 

unknown 

75,000.00* 

unknown 

unknown 

unknown 

unknown 

unknown 

25,000.00 

unknown 


75,000.00 


* Interest on the principal sum of this bequest has been paid to the United Charities by the Executors 
)f Mrs. Palmer’s estate since May, 1922. 


FORM OF BEQUEST 

I give and bequeath to the United Charities of Chicago, a corporation 
organized under the laws of Illinois, the sum of.Dollars 













































































82 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 




UNITED CHARITIES OF CHICAGO 

Balance Sheet as at September 30, 1922 

ASSETS 

Real Estate, Buildings and Equipment, Etc.: 

Land, Hospital and Camp Sites, Algonquin, Ill. $ 8,500.00 

Buildings, Hospital and Camps at Algonquin, 

Ill., including Equipment. 42,839.65 

House of Social Service: 


Land. $ 7,012.23 

Building. $39,133.16 


Less Depreciation 

(2 years at 1^%) 1,174.00 37,959.16 44,971.39 

Properties carried at Nominal Value 
of $1.00 each pending disposal: 

Isaac J. Rice, Building Lot. $ 1.00 


Michael Heron, House and Lot 1.00 

2.00 

$ 96,313.04 

Rudolph Matz Memorial Library. 


633.05 

Invested Funds: 

Restricted: 

Income used for General Purposes. 

Income used for Specific Purposes: 

Mary Crane Nursery. 

Legal Aid Bureau. 

Benjamin B. Lamb—Loan Fund. 

$321,287.15 

99,985.00 

28,816.19 

29,321.47 


Total Endowment Fund Investments.. . . 
Rudolph Matz Memorial (Library) 

Investment. 

$479,409.81 

482.50 


Unrestricted. 

399,511.51 

879,403.82 

Estimated Interest in Investments held in Trust: 

Martin Ryerson Trust Fund. 

Benjamin S. Cable Memorial. 

Dora Tripp Bartlett Memorial. 

B. A. Eckhart Trust Fund. 

Charles F. Kimball Fund. 

$ 40,000.00 
15,000.00 
12,500.00 
10,000.00 
9,500.00 

87,000.01 

Accounts Receivable on Account of Expenditures 
in Special Activities made from General Fund : 

General Office Special. 

Camp Harlowarden. 

Tribune Free Ice Fund. 

$ 131.04 

910.47 
557.84 

1,599.35 

Cash on Hand and in Banks. 


25,892.26 



$1,090,841.5.' 











































FINANCIAL 


83 


UNITED CHARITIES OF CHICAGO 

Balance Sheet as at September 30, 1922 

LIABILITIES 


Endowment Funds —Invested. $479,409.81 

In general funds—to be invested in Certificate 

of Deposit. 27.50 


Rudolph Matz Memorial Fund. 

Trust Funds: 

With Northern Trust Company— 

Martin Ryerson. $40,000.00 

Benjamin S. Cable. 15,000.00 

Dora Tripp Bartlett. 12,500.00 


$67,500.00 

With Chicago Community Trust— 

B. A. Eckhart. 10,000.00 

With State Bank of Chicago— 

Charles F. Kimball. 9,500.00 


Special Funds: 

Relief of Specified Families. $13,077.89 

House of Social Service. 318.00 

Benjamin B. Lamb Fund. 1,086.10 


Demand Notes Payable to Bank. 

Surplus: 

Balance at September 30, 1921. $205,037.09 


Add—Excess of Income over Expenditures for 

the year ending September 30, 1922... . 276,678.23 


479,437.31 

1,206.90 


87,000.00 

14,481.99 

27,000.00 

481,715.32 























84 


DISBURSEMENTS AND INCOME FOR THF E 


DISBURSEMENTS 

Year 1919-20 

Family Social Service 

Cost of service—Superintendents, 
Social Case Workers, Inter¬ 
preters, Visiting Housekeepers 
and Clerical Staff. 


$91,578.73 

29,696.60 

28.332.40 
11,532.35 
25,417.32 
81,050.38 

5,984.67 

14,969.96 

22.892.41 

38,929.82 

$91,578.73 

26% 

Relief—Necessary Disbursements 
incidental toSocialService Relief 

Rent. 

Food. 


Clothing. 

Milk. 




Cash grants. 

Fuel. 




All other relief, e. g., medicine, 
furniture, loans, etc. 


196,983.68 

22,892.41 

38,929.82 

56% 

6% 

12% 

Maintenance of ten district offices 
General Administration (7-10 of 
of General Office maintenance 
and salaries). 


Special Departments and Activities: 

Mary Crane Nursery. 

Summer Outings and Camps.. . . 
Tribune Free Ice Fund. 


$23,132.62 

35,452.42 

3,915.87 

5,709.46 

7,354.73 

3,033.80 

2,900.05 

$350,384.64 

100% 

Camp Harlowarden. 




Social Service Exchange. 

General Office Relief. 

Honore St. Building. 

House of Social Service. 




Legal Aid Bureau: 

Salaries. 

$ 16,683.95 
2,171.37 

10,582.25 



Maintenance. 




Fundscollected for clients,and paid 
for judgments, court costs, etc.. 
General Administration (3-10 of 
Office maintenanceand salaries) 

29,437.57 

19,687.47 

130,623.99 

• 

Special Campaign Expense. 



$481,008.63 


Demand Loans Paid. 



32,000.00 






Grand Total. 



$513,008.63 






INCOME 

Income from invested funds: 
Restricted. 


$ 8,631.84 

23,278.91 

253,552.75 

45,105.88 

11,833.09 

11,436.20 

5,030.57 

30,832.61 

5,195.00 

27,545.52 

4,327.94 



Unrestricted. 




General and Special Contributions: 

General work. 




For special families. 




Mary Crane Nursery. 




Camp AlgonquinandTribune Hos. 
Tribune Free Ice Fund. 




Summer Outings. 




Camp Harlowarden. 




Legal Aid Bureau. 




All other receipts. 








Total. 


$426,770.31 

































































85 


ISCAL YEARS: 1919-1920, 1920-1921, 1921-1922 


542.96 

> 25.78 

.97.94 


Year 1920-21 


Year 1921 

-22 


$101,789.58 

$101,789.58 

27% 


$105,884.88 

,$105,884.88 

31% 

31,941.98 
3 6,763.65 
7,533.28 
23,000.41 
76,426.86 
7,948.77 



■ * ' 

29,038.85 

38,306.90 

5,411.33 

16,727.11 

59,181.04 

5,935.76 



19,424.10 

24,659.95 

203,039.05 

24,659.95 

54% 

7% 


15,165.49 

23,068.17 

169,766.48 

23,068.17 

49% 

7% 

48,032.78 

48,032.78 

12% 


46,036.19 

46,036.19 

13% 

24,019.89 

42,647.33 

6,133.76 

4,922.34 

7.571.78 

7.263.79 

2.824.80 

$377,521.36 

100% 

$19,071.14 

2,234.25 

17,704.54 

44,839.96 

3,011.97 

10,657.04 

3,260.12 

7,505.25 

19.20 

3,229.82 

$344,755.72 

100% 

44,966.68 



23,659.04 

44,964.43 



22,138.00 

162,488.37 



19,729.80 

154,922.13 



$540,009.73 



• 

$499,677.85 

22,200.00 

142,000.00 



$540,009.73 




$663,877.85 


$ 9,359.60 

24,270.61 

* 



$ 7,749.96 

38,559.58 



303,650.73 

48,379.96 

9,907.58 

13,687.47 

5,750.48 

32,667.62 

5,547.96 

43,168.88 

5,637.45 




404,939.40 

41,088.36 

8,253.90 

12.612.89 
3,452.68 

33,359.42 

10.170.89 
36,284.02 

5,488.94 



$502,028.34 




$601,960.04 






























































86 


SIXTY-SIX YEARS OF SERVICE 


AUDITOR’S CERTIFICATE 

We certify that we have audited the accounts of 
the United Charities of Chicago for the year ending 
September 30, 1922, and have found them correct. 

Properly authorized vouchers were produced for 
all disbursements made during the year. 

We have examined the Securities in the hands of 
others for safekeeping and verified the balances of 
Cash on hand and in Banks. 

The foregoing Balance Sheet and Accounts are in 
accordance with the books of the United Charities 
of Chicago, and in our opinion exhibit a true and 
correct view of the condition of its affairs as at 

September 30, 1922. 

» 

Arthur Young & Co., 

Certified Public Accountants. 

Chicago, Illinois, November 10, 1922, 





United Charities District Offices 

and Boundaries 


NORTHERN: 732 Fullerton Ave. 


Lincoln 1886 

Bouiunry: N. by City Limits; E. by Lake; S. by North Ave.- 
W. by River. 


NORTHWEST: 2129 Alice PI. Humboldt 0036 

Boundary: N by River; E. by River; S. by Division St.; 

W. by City Limits. 


LOWER NORTH: 102 E. Oak St. 

Boundary: N. by North Ave.; E. by Lake; S. 
W. by River. 


Superior 7963 

by River; 


HAYMARKET: 1703 W. Grand Ave. Haymarket 6313 

Boundary: N. by Division St.; E. by River; S. by Harrison 
St.; W. by City Limits. 

MARY CRANE: 818 Gilpin PL Monroe 1457 

Boundary: N. by Harrison St.; E. by River; S. by 16th St. 

W. by City Limits. 

SOUTHWEST: 2118 W. 22nd St. Canal 1900 

Boundary: N. by 16th St.; E. by River; S. by River; W. bv 
City Limits. 

CENTRAL: 2959 S. Michigan Ave. Calumet 4980 

Boundary: N. by River; E. by Lake; S. by 39th St.; W. by 
River. 

STOCKYARDS: 734 W. 47th St. Boulevard 5480 

Boundary: N. by 39th St.; E. by Lake; S. by 60th St. W. to 
South Park Ave. N. on South Park to Garfield Blvd. W. on 
Garfield Blvd. to City Limits; W. by City Limits. 

ENGLEWOOD: 6309 Yale Ave. Englewood 3860 

Boundary: N. by Garfield Blvd.; E. by South Park Ave. S. 
to 103rd St. by Stony Island, S. to Limits; S. by City Limits; 

W. by City Limits. 

CALUMET : 3070 E. 79th St. Dorchester 0256 

Boundary: N. by 60th St.; E. by Lake and Limits; S. by 
City Limits; W. to the point where Stony Island Ave. would 
intersect the City Boundary line if drawn south through Lake 
Calumet; W. north of this line to 103rd St. to South Park 
Avenue and then north on South Park Ave. to 60th St. 



To DAVID R. FORGAN, Treasurer .. 

308 No. Michigan Avenue 

Chicago 

I enclose herewith a contribution of $. 

for the work of the United Charities of Chicago. 

M rs. 

Aliss .-.... .. 

.19. 

.to be used 

Mr. J 

Street ... 


City .-.. 


J . 





























MAP OF 

™e UNITED CHARITIES °e CHICAGO 

ft CASE STUDY ^ SOCIHL AGENCY 

OCTOBER 1920-OCTOBER 1321 

PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF- 
DR. ROBERT E. PARK 

BY 

FAY B. KARPF 
ERLE F. YOUNG 

DEPARTMENT or SOCIOLOGY 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 


leoend 


® Central Office 
¥ District Offices 

1 Northern 

2 Northwest 


6 Southwest 
7Central 


3 Lower North 8 Stockyards 

4 Hay market 9EngIcwood 


U JYlui y Ci cuic 

Contributor $100 or over 
» Contributor <150 or less 
♦ General Directors 
-►District Directors 
+ Workers 
. Family Served 
-District Boundaries 


lOCalumet 





























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Distribution of Poverty and 
Philanthropy in Chicago 

As Revealed by a Study* of United Charities 
Cases and List of Contributors. 


T HE accompanying map is intended to show something of the organiza¬ 
tion of the United Charities and the general character of the problems 
with which it is dealing. While the impressions which the map gives 
are in the main accurate, liberal allowances must be made in drawing con¬ 
clusions from the details presented. This is necessary because of the methods 
used in selecting data and the limitations imposed by mechanical difficulties. 

1.—Approximately 5,500 'families served” are spotted. This does not include 
families who received minor services. The boundaries of the various groups 
were copied from a language group map. They indicate the groups in each 
area furnishing the largest number of cases. Where no group predominates, 
the area is marked '‘Cosmopolitan.” The Jewish areas are not shown on this 
map since they are dealt with by the Associated Jewish Charities. Those immi¬ 
grant areas which furnish few cases are, of course, not labeled. 

2. AH the larger contributors who live in the city and who contributed as indi¬ 
viduals and not as business organizations, so far as could be determined, were 
spotted. 

3.—A generous sample of small contributors was taken at random from the files. 
Business houses and suburban subscribers were not included. 

4 ._All directors and professional social workers who live in the city were spotted. 

5.—In each case only sufficient addresses were located to bring out as clearly as 
possible the extent and character of the segregation. 

(Signed) Erle Fiske Young. 


The University of Chicago. 


•This study was made by students of the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. 











